Imperfection
by cuddlydemonicrabbits
Summary: Ziro is a clan with odd colored cats, wolf hybrids, and different sets of rules and beliefs. Their only wish is to live in peace instead of being mocked and constantly tormented by the snobbish SnowClan, sadistic FlameClan, and the traditional and disgusted RazeClan. How long will the leader Rainami have to wait until they are finally accepted and given a sign from StarClan?
1. Prologue

**Allegiances**

 **Leader** : Rainami: A muscular tom with light blue eyes and plain white fur on his body, except for his legs, tail, and ears that are multi-colored, resembling a rainbow.

 **Deputy:** Solarite: Rainami's sister; A medium-sized black cat with neon yellow paws and a neon yellow marking of the sun on her left eye. Small white spots wrap around her paws in a spiral pattern.

 **Medicine Cat:** Lopsy: A rabbit/cat hybrid with long floppy white ears and tail of a rabbit and the body of a cat.

 **Therapist:** Legend: Large golden-furred yellow-eyed tom with the mane of a lion, fangs of a vampire, and wings of an eagle.

 **Apprentices:**

 **Roosevelt** : A tiny white she-cat with dark blue eyes with red horns resembling a demon. Wears a light blue scarf around her neck at all times; cheerful.

 **Phoenix:** Roosevelt's sister; tiny dark red cat with a bushy tail made of flames and the wings of an angel; get angered easily.

 **Mimi** : Gray she-cat with green eyes and a large neon green spot on her right eye and smaller spots over the rest of her body; previously a loner; enjoys learning new things.

 **Theodore:** Tall and lanky tan male with darker tan stripes running along his back and a white tail with skinny gray stripes; socially awkward and very shy.

 **Warriors:**

 **Cali:** Beautiful slender pale brown she-cat with speckles of dark brown and white that trail down her back all the way to her darker brown tail. Tail tip is white along with her paws; isn't targeted as much due to her more "normal" appearance. (mentors Theodore)

 **Sandy:** Dark blue-and-black she-cat with one pale green eye and one bright purple eye and three tails, each a different shade of blue; Cali's Sister; nocturnal. (mentors Phoenix)

 **Foster:** Bright yellow blue-eyed tom with palm trees all over his body; extremely strong with long sharp claws. (mentors Mimi)

 **Lilac:** Light purple long-furred she-cat with dark purple eyes with the tail of a wolf. Has dark purple ears of a wolf, as well; always has some sort of flower tied around her tail or next to her ear. (mentors Roosevelt)

 **Max:** Cat/wolf hybrid; Lilac's brother; muscular black cat with a long red and white lightning bolt on his back. Has the tail of a cat, as well as the tail of a wolf.

 **Willow:** Tall and muscular she-cat with strange spiral orange markings on her legs, which are black. The rest of her body is jet black, except for a patch of white fur on her head between her eyes; enjoys fighting (enemies) Previously a _loner._

 **Riley:** Tall, yet very weak, she-cat with yellow and black fur, resembling a bumblebee. Doesn't have fur on her legs, which makes her self-conscious; mates with Willow ( **yes you heard me)** Previously a _loner_.

 **Storm:** Large and muscular light gray tom with dark gray storm clouds all over his body that each have tiny raindrops underneath them. When angered, he gains the ability to shock others. (father of Max and Lilac)

 **Queens:**

 **Kate:** A medium-sized gray wolf with black spots on her face. (mother of Max and Lilac)

 **Taco:** Tall she-cat with light brown sides, the top of her back is light green with large dark brown spots on top with yellow tiny lines next to the spots. Previously a _loner._

 **Nia:** Red fox with a white tail with floppy ears of a dog; wondered into the camp and was previously treated like a pet.

 **Elders:**

 **Aggie** : Kind she-cat with six legs, each a different color. Has very shaggy blonde fur covering her eyes.

 **Fluffy:** Short metallic blue cat/rabbit hybrid (grandfather of Lopsy) who could possible to part Yorkie, based on his body type.

Most of the time, a clan won't allow a loner or kittypet to join their clan, which I find to be rather rude. They say it's against the warrior code. Oh, yes. I know all about the warrior code. There's so many unfair rules in that blasted warrior code, such as not allowing medicine cats to have kits or have a mate, and cats not being allowed to have mates in other clans. Why are there so many rules regarding love? That's something you can't help! I try not to associate with the other clans as much as possible. Not because I hate them; it's a number of things. They take everything to serious, they only believe in doing things by the book, and…I won't allow my clan to be made fun of.

There are four clans all together. SnowClan, a clan where 5,000 years of snow and ice have collected on the ground and it's always freezing there. Most of the cats there are white, or at least some other very pale color, such as pale brown or pale gray. Their leader is the forever arrogant and snobbish Icestorm. The rest of the clan are like evil little clones of him. They all think they're so perfect and brag about how their hunting and fighting skills are better than any other clan. I hate arrogant cats. They make fun of us the most.

Next there's FlameClan, a clan ran by the sadistic Whispheart, for his equally sadistic warriors. Everyone there is black with these bizarre flame markings on each of their paws. They live where the sun shines the warmest over the entire land. The grass is black and dead and they live off of insects when they're not busy doing sneak attacks on us or playing evil pranks on each other.

Then there's RazeClan. Everyone there hates my clan so badly that they refuse to be within a 30 foot distances of us at the Gathering. Dragonfoot, a young, ill-mannered she cat with long black claws, makes sure that none of her precious cats come in contact with us. Their territory is a large field made like a desert with cactuses growing everywhere.

Finally, there's us, Ziro. There is no "clan" tacked on at the end. We live in a beautiful forest filled with bunnies and squirrels, deer and turtles. We mainly hunt hawks since the other animals are so cute. The other clans (especially FlameClan) make fun of us all the time for that. They say that we are weak and moronic for caring about the lives of animals. Joke's on them; everyone in my clan is healthy. Also, the other animals alert us when one of them is attacking us. It helps…kind of.

Everyone in my clan is special. Unique. Everything from their fur colors to personalities to even species is perfectly imperfect. We accept all loners and kittypets. We do follow some aspects of the warrior code, (such as the part with not eating when you're hunting) but the other clans continue to mock us and say that it's not enough. They say that we're all going to the Place of No Stars because of our disgusting ways.

I do not care what they say, I try to tell myself. But sometimes their words and insults hurt much worse than any attack could.

If only the world were a better place. Less cruel. Less sadistic. Less arrogant. Less…hurtful.

-Rainami


	2. Morning

"Someday we'll be free of this." Solarite said comfortingly as she placed her jet-black tail on her brother's shoulders. The two sat on a thick tree branch belonging to Massive Oak, the tall oak tree that grew in the center of the camp. Many moons ago, a group of kits named the tree and the leader thought it was cute. So it was named. Yes, it was a massive oak indeed, being tall enough to overlook the entire camp.

"One can dream, Solarite." Rainami gave a weary sigh, wrapping his own tail around the branch. He looked down at the small dens lit by a small fire. A few cats were moving around, either going to their dens or to talk to the therapist.

"Rainami, please promise me this." The cat said with urgency in her voice. She adjusted her position in the tree to where one leg was hanging of and the other was folded in towards her. Rainami looked at his sister his serious light blue eyes. "When we go to the Gathering in three days, you will not attack them. You will not curse at them. You will sit there while they scream at you like the morons they are."

Rainami sighed once more. Solarite always wanted to take the peaceful route to everything. And, normally he'd choose peace rather than a bloody battle. But he felt that there as a time and place for everything, and this happened to be the place for a confrontation. To avoid any lectures or scolding, he simply nodded. "Yes, Solarite." He briefly thought about how Gatherings are supposed to be peaceful. That pattern will continue…for now.

Roosevelt loved these nice sunny days. Not too hot, not too cloudy. Just the right about of sunlight shining down on the camp. She briefly turned towards her sleeping sister, Phoenix, who flapped her wings slightly as her chest rose, then fell. There were sometimes when she just wanted to sleep in and relax instead of learning how to hunt birds and battle tactics. Oh, well.

"Phoenix." Roosevelt gently poked her side. She already knew to jump away to avoid getting burned by her tail made of fire. A few weeks ago she hadn't been so lucky; as a result she was forced to wear a large bandage around her chest.

"No!" Phoenix hissed as she lashed her tail in anger. "Get the hell out of here!"

Roosevelt shook her head in disappointment. "You promised to stop cursing. It's not right."

"I can do whatever the hell I want to! What are you gonna do about it?!" The dark red cat spat, squirming around on the dirt floor. Her wings flapped quickly while her tail glowed white, sending sparks flying everywhere. When one of them landed on Roosevelt's knee she received a kick to her side.

"Are you trying to burn this place down?!"

Mimi, another apprentice, slowly opened one of her eyes, then closed it once again knowing that it was only the two sisters yelling instead of an intruder. "Come on," She mumbled. "Cut it out." Her voice was slowly becoming annoyed, any trace of sleep evaporating. After a few more moments of arguing and screaming, she sucked in her breath and let out an ear-piercing scream.

Roosevelt separated from Phoenix immediately and dashed out of the den with her tail wrapped around her stomach. Phoenix closed her eyes tightly, covered her ears and mimicked the gray cat.

On the far side of the den, the sounds of whimpering coming from Theodore's mouth went unnoticed. Without really thinking, he stumbled past the two, trying to keep himself from falling over. He knew he was about to get a migraine from waking up too suddenly…and from the two cats screaming like a couple of banshees.

Outside, Theodore's body led him towards the large pond that was located next to Massive Oak. Immediately he practically dunked his head into the water to help wake himself up more. Humans have coffee; Ziro cats burry their heads in five inches of cold water for 10 seconds. Both ways were very effective in terms of forcing someone wide awake.

As he did this, he was unaware of his mentor sitting right behind him. She flicked her ears slightly as she turned her head to the left side.

"Oh, please don't let me get a headache." Theodore finally raised his head from the water, breathing heavier than normal.

"Well, it's about time, Theo." The she-cat mewed playfully. "For a moment there, I thought I was going to have to call Lopsy over here."

If you would, imagine yourself standing in front of a crowd of 10,000 very loud, very angry, and highly-judgmental people. Then imagine someone telling you that you're about to die in 35 seconds. Now imagine someone revealing your biggest secret to everyone you know. Finally, multiply that times 1,000. This is how Theodore was feeling when he heard the sound of Cali's wonderful voice.: a divine mixture of fear, dread, and embarrassment. Though one couldn't tell, Theodore was blushing under that thick fur of his. Shaking violently with his heat beating about 245 times a millisecond, he somehow managed to force himself to face the patient cat.

"H…Hi," Theodore squeaked, lowering his head so that he wouldn't accidentally make eye-contact. The one thing that he never did was make eye-contact with anyone. Sometimes he wondered what color eyes the other cats had, but he wasn't curious enough (or stupid enough in his opinion) to look them directly in the face.

Thankfully for him, most of his clanmates were aware of his shyness and "adapted" to his ways, doing things such as not pressing him to look at them and trying to keep their conversations short. At the same time they wanted to help him overcome this, but no one wanted to make him feel uncomfortable. A conundrum this was.

Cali slowly lowered her tail. "Um, well, I was thinking about us doing some scenario training again." She wanted it to come out more as a comment, but by the tone of her voice, it ended up sounding like a question. Scenario training was when the apprentices were given a scenario and they have to find the most effective way to handle it.

"Okay, C-C-Cali." Inside of his head, he scolded himself. Oh, if only he had the confidence of the proud warrior that stood before him. The social grace, the skills. He wanted for people to look up to him, but instead they pitied him because he was a failure. He was a failure in training, a failure at making friends, a failure in his appearance. While everyone else was either muscular or slender or "normal", he awkwardly towered over everyone, thanks to his accursed thin legs.

But before the two could do anything, a cry rang from on top of the oak tree. "Let all cats who are in a good mood come forward for a clan meeting!" Rainami shouted.

The majority of the clan surrounded the tree, except for Storm—a warrior—who was currently in the medicine cat den being treated for a swollen tail.

"Storm, I hope you feel better soon." Rainami shouted from the tree. After there was a large enough number of cats, he began. "There are a matter of things that I wish to talk about today. First off, if you have seen the five-foot wide leaf that is usually inside of my den, please return it; he gives me comfort. Secondly, if you are out hunting, bring back some long pieces of grass; Legend is making puppets that help you talk more easily about your feelings. This helps you all and makes his life a little bit easier." He stopped suddenly as if he was contemplating whether to continue or not. "Thirdly…as you all know, the Gathering is in three days."

A series of moans and sad meows caused the leader's shoulders to sag.

"I know, I know. But as tradition, we can't just not show up." Suddenly he turned towards his deputy. "Wait, can we?" Briefly his eyes lit up as he stared expectantly at Solarite.

"No. And that would just give them the satisfaction."

"Great." He muttered, then resumed shouting down towards the others. "I am going to confront that sexist Whispheart for his little 'prank' last week, and how he continuously makes jokes about my masculinity. Yes, I have rainbow patterns on my fur; WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!" Rainami kicked the trunk of the tree with his back legs like a horse, seething with rage. "MORONIC LITTLE—"

"HEY!" Solarite cuffed his over the ear, with unsheathed claws. "Control you anger, fool! You're scaring the kits!"

The multi-colored tom reluctantly looked down at the small kits huddled next to their mother with a look of terror on their faces.

He lowered his tail and flattened his ears. "I deeply apologize for my actions. That is not how a leader should behave." Rainami bowed his head with closed eyes. "Anyway, when we go, we shall sit there and ignore their cruel words. Remember, StarClan shall strike them all down if they continue—"

"Rainami!"

"I meant, StarClan is watching over everything they do and say and karma will catch up with them." The leader glanced at his sister for approval.

"Good, I guess." She muttered.

"Meeting dismissed. We do not care what they say; all their words just ricochet." He concluded with the clan's little mantra. It was meant to be said when a cat felt that they were about to seriously hurt someone.


	3. Therapist

**I'm sorry if this chapter isn't exciting, but it was all that I could think of to write. I'll try to update every 2-4 days.**

His name was Legend, and he was the clan's therapist. He helped the others with their problems and gave them advice. Sometimes they just wanted someone to talk to, whether it be about their dreams or complete nonsense. On the day after the gathering, anyone who had not yet seen him must go to him because Rainami had a theory. He had a theory that if someone held in their emotions, letting the build-up over time, something would set them off and they'd snap and do something that they would regret.

After the little meeting, Legend was ready for his first meeting of the day. To ensure the confidentiality of his patients, he made sure that his den was far away from anyone. Thankfully, the forest was big enough to accommodate his needs. On the very edge of the camp going towards the west, there was large deserted field that was completely covered with three-foot-high yellow grass. A narrow pathway covered with dead leaves led to a small den made out of a combination of large stones, moss, and brambles. It wasn't as big as the dens in camp, but it was good enough for Legend, especially sense he was the one who built it.

The den's floor was covered with layers of dark moss, newer moss being put on top every few weeks. Small animals such as rabbits and chipmunks would sometimes sleep inside; it didn't bother Legend. He'd already expected that to happen. He often thought building another tiny den for the animals to stay in during leaf-bare.

Once inside, Legend flapped his eagle wings once, sending dried moss everywhere.

"Darn." He muttered. "I'm not fixing this." He then decided. Circling around the floor, he lowered himself and waited for his next patient. When he was on the verge of falling asleep, he heard the sounds of footsteps crunching on leaves. "Nia." Legend stood up slowly and began brushing the dirt off of his body.

The fox twitched one of her ears before going to the center of the floor. "Legend, I really need some advice." She sighed deeply.

"About what?" Legend quickly as he scribbled her name down on a pad of paper, followed by the time of day she was visiting. Due to Legend being a slightly mythical creature, he had the ability to do many things that the other clan members—or any members of any clan—couldn't do. For example, he could read and write in an entire language that only he could understand. The language in question would be referred to as English by Twolegs.

"I'm having concerns that people still think of me as a pet rather than…one of them." Nia repositioned herself to where she was staring laying on her back, her paws on top of her chest. "They don't say anything about it but they leave subtle hints within their conversations with me and their actions."

Seven months ago, Nia had wondered into the camp during Leaf-bare in the search for food. What a pitiful little scrap she was, using the little energy that she had left to trudge through the heavy snowstorm that raged on. The amount of snowfall was so great that she didn't even notice the dens, which blended in with the 46 inches of snow on the ground. Suddenly she felt someone wrap their arms around her, but feeling so tired Nia didn't even bother to struggle.

 _"_ _Solarite! I found this fox near the middle of camp!" She heard Rainami telling the deputy._

 _"_ _Gah! Get her out here before she bites you!"_

 _"_ _She looked friendly!" Rainami spat. Quickly following his remark, Nia felt him petting her back slowly._

 _"_ _She looks sick," Solarite's voice was more concerned. "Take her to Lopsy."_

 _"_ _Yes,"_

 _"_ _And after she checks over her, you are to release her back into the wild where she belongs." Solarite called out just as Rainami padded out the den, holding Nia by a scruff fur on her neck._

 _"_ _Yeah, sure." Once he was sure that he was out of his sister's sight, Rainami gently grabbed the fox and stared at her brown beady eyes. "She wouldn't mind if you stayed here for a day…or two." He then touched noses with the squeaking animal._

In a way it was Rainami's fault for Nia feeling this way. Amazingly he sweet-talked Solarite into keeping her as a pet. He then addressed everyone in the clan, telling them that the fox—later named Nia—would be the new 'camp pet'. And Nia accepted it, not wanting to go back out into that god forsaken wilderness. But recently, she decided that being called a pet was a little bit of an insult and highly unacceptable, and demanded that she be a productive member of Ziro.

"Even though I'm technically a queen now, I still like I'm not doing anything to help the clan. I mean, there are no other male foxes around here." She briefly caught sight of Legend's face. "Yes, I know I can be with other cats. I'm not discriminating, alright?"

"I didn't say you were," The golden tom raised his hands defensively, then scribbled on his pad furiously. "Could you tell me some of the things that the cats are saying and doing?"

"They accidentally ask me if I want to play fetch with them or start petting me as I'm relaxing. Or they try to call me over to them by shouting, 'here, girl!'." Nia scoffed with disgust, crossing her arms with annoyance.

"Nia, perhaps they are just having difficulty accepting the fact that you are no longer a pet. I mean, for StarClan sake, you've been one for the past seven months and you just recently changed over to a queen two weeks ago. While they do not necessarily have the right to do these things, you should ignore it and simply remind them that you aren't a pet anymore. It takes people a while to adjust to something that may contradict to what they are used to."

"Okay, okay." Nia started to sit up with a frown on her face. She waved her tail once. "I'll try to have a conversation with the main ones who keep doing it. Thank you, Legend, for the advice."

"No problem," With the nod of his head, Nia padded out of the den and headed back towards the forest. Legend reviewed over the notes that he had taken, which were 90% scribbles of cats and Nia interacting with each other. "I thought that cats were normally afraid of foxes." The large cat mused as he chewed on a pencil. "Hmm."


	4. My Dark Side

**I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little short, but here's some drama *throws chapter at you like peanuts** *

"So are you ready to get up now?" Cali stood over her sister, who was curled into a ball, sleeping. She pulled on one of her tails slightly, then shook her head. "Guess not," Shrugging, the she-cat wondered out of the warrior den. No one knew why Sandy would sleep during the day and be active at night, especially since Cali wasn't like this. How odd it was to have a nocturnal sister. Strangely enough, that wasn't the weirdest thing about Sandy. Three long tails—one pale blue, one a medium shade of blue, and one dark blue—were the first thing that anyone noticed about her.

What she couldn't figure out, though, was how she was able to mentor Phoenix when she didn't wake up until the sun went down. Maybe Rainami worked out some special arrangement for them to be allowed this.

Since her apprentice was with Legend, Cali had some time to herself, at least for a little while anyway. "Maybe I can rest in that nice patch of clovers behind Lopsy's den." Cali gave a small smile before leaving the den. As she made her way to the medicine cat den, she glanced at all her friends and family either playing with each other, relaxing, or working. With a contented sigh, Cali closed her eyes and thanked StarClan for moments where there were no arguments or fighting amongst her clan members, or violence directed towards the other idiotic clans who hated them for foolish reasons.

"Wait a minute." Opening her eyes quickly, Cali began to scent a cat from another territory. Her previously joyous mood disappeared as a scowl grew on her face. "Icestorm." She growled deeply. She now began to actually see the tall, well-groomed pure white tom standing proudly with a sneer on his face. "Icestorm! You coward! What are you doing in our territory?!"

Her shouting alerted the surrounding cats, who quickly surrounded the leader.

"Ah, Cali. Nice to see you as well. My, what a shame that you're forced to live in such despicable conditions. You'd make a fine warrior in my perfect clan. Of course we'd have to do something about that pelt of yours; it would attract too much attention. Other than that you're flawless, except for the vermin blood that runs through your veins." He confidently padded into camp with his tail high in the air. Icestorm paid no attention to the death glares he was receiving, or how the cats moved closer to him with unsheathed claws.

"You better have a good reason as to why you're less than ten feet away from me." Rainami parted through the cats, with Solarite by his side.

"I regret to inform you that my wonderful medicine _cat_ ," Icestorm spat out the last word as he looked towards Lopsy with disgust. "has foreseen a prophecy from StarClan concerning your tainted abomination of cats. He told me earlier this morning these words: 'Three clans will rise and form to become one in order to fix one mistake'."

At once Rainami cried out in anger as he sprung on top of Icestorm's back, using his claws to dig into his skin. He then flipped himself over as his claws remained in Icestorm's skin, then finished raking down his back all the way down to his tail as he stood on his hind-legs. Before Icestorm could make an attack, he grabbed ahold of him from his left side and threw him down forcefully.

Icestorm wailed pathetically as the multi-colored leader continued to rake his claws down his sides, the previously green grass turning dark red with blood.

"Now you listen to me and listen hard, you arrogant thick-headed worthless soulless and sorry excuse for a leader," Rainami jerked the heavily bleeding Icestorm up by his shoulders, staring deep into his terrified dark blue ones with his fury-filled light ones. "You're going to get out of my clan," He shook Icestorm forcefully, snarling as he winced. "And if I ever see you in here again, trying to scare us," Rainami spat angrily as he tightened his grip on the leader. "I will make sure that you leave blinded with four broken legs and no tail. Do you understand me?"

Icestorm shook his head quickly.

"Get out of my sight," Rainami shoved Icestorm away from him and turned to leave before he could do any more damage to him.

"What the hell was that?!" Solarite growled once she was sure that Icestorm was gone. "As if they've given us enough hell, you've given them one more reason to target us. I wouldn't be surprised if they freaking attack us in the next few hours!" She walked quickly to keep up with Rainami's pace. Soon they were inside of the small cave where he slept.

Rainami said nothing as he stepped into his nest, pawing at the sides franticly and scattering leaves everywhere. He noticed how Solarite just glared at him hatefully from the entrance of the cave. Finally, he settled down, a frown still apparent on his face.

"Are you going to say anything?" Solarite finally asked.

Rainami just stared at his sister, showing no emotion. "You and I both know that I'm a nice person until someone has sent me over the edge. Then they see my dark side. Icestorm came into my clan, trying to scare everyone, I scared him." Slowly he lowered himself deeper into the wide nest, closing his eyes. "Simple as that."


	5. Keep Calm

**Dear elders who are reading this: I'm planning to only update on weekends and holidays since school has started again...wah...so do not expect me to do as I originally planned and update every 2-4 days.**

Foster and Mimi were making their way back to the clan after a successful hunting lesson…alright fine. That's a lie. A large hawk attacked Foster, which caused him to run until he fell into a 10 feet deep hole. After an hour and a half, he climbed out, still traumatized from the attack as Mimi padded behind him, carrying the hawk in her mouth.

"So…Mimi." Foster began nervously, trying not to make eye-contact as they walked.

"Yes?"

"You…wouldn't be thinking of telling the others about…what happened…would you?" The yellow tom cleared his throat.

Mimi continued staring ahead of her. She dropped the hawk on the ground, then turned to face Foster. "Wouldn't dream of it." Her slightly-scratchy voice responded politely, a small smile present on her face.

After slightly dropping his head, Foster looked at Mimi thankfully. "Thank you, Mi—"

"That accursed disgusting pile of mouse droppings!" Foster tensed as the sounds of Icestorm's voice. Why on earth was he on Ziro territory? The yellow cat didn't have much time to think about it as he began to shove Mimi into a large bush, following her after.

"Ah, no worries, Icestorm." The white tom's voice had significantly calmed down, sounding back to his sly self. "He'll remember not to mess with me after the gathering. Once I reveal the little secret of his to everyone, his 'clan' will begin to fall apart." Icestorm then chucked darkly as he limped back to SnowClan.

Slowly, the two cats came out of their hiding place, occasionally looking at the direction Icestorm went and the trail back to Ziro. Mimi let out a small squeak of surprise at the sight of droplets of blood on top of a pile of green leaves. "Rainami," She muttered with disappointment. The sounds of paw steps retreating broke Mimi away from her thoughts and she directed her attention at the angry Foster. "Hey! Foster, no!" Mimi ran after him.

Foster paid no attention to Mimi's calls, his only mission to destroy Icestorm. He wasn't about to let anyone hurt his leader, or his clan. "When I get my hands around his his throat I swear that I'm gonna finish whatever Rainami started."

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?! Foster! Foster, come back here and stop it!" She knew he was ignoring her but Mimi continued to try anyway in the rare chance that he comes back to his senses.

Foster continued walking, muttering threats under his breath. "No one tries to blackmail my leader and get away with it."

"Going over there starting a fight isn't going to help anything! You're just going to make everything worse! You're gonna go over there, get killed, then SnowClan's going to come over here and do Starclan knows what to us. How are you going to pick a fight with someone who has nine lives when you only have one?"

Slowly, Foster came to a stop, staring ahead of him for a few moments. If he were to continue at this pace, he's be in SnowClan in less than five minutes. "Mimi, why must you make sense?" The yellow tom looked over his shoulders, staring at the apprentice sadly with his blue eyes. He made his way back over to Mimi before laying down.

"My mother told me that if someone is angry, the best thing they can do is remove themselves from the situation. That is how I was raised, and if that makes me seem like a coward, then so be it. If they haven't did anything to physically or emotionally hurt you, it's not your place to harm them. Yes, there's nothing wrong with defending someone, but this isn't the right moment. Just tell Rainami and he'll know how to handle it."

"Such a wise young cat." He looked down and noticed that his claws were unsheathed. Mentally, he scolded himself for this. _"Damn it, Foster. You would have probably killed him."_

Waving her tail, Mimi turned and began to walk towards Ziro, with Foster following slowly behind as he berated himself for his behavior.

"Hey! Where have you guys been?" Lopsy bounced up and down at the entrance, watching as Foster and Mimi passed. "You missed two meetings! Well, the last one just happened about two minutes ago and that was one of his Angry Meetings." Lopsy rolled her eyes at the memory. Whenever Rainami was upset about something, he would call a clan meeting and shout profanities from Massive Oak. Was it appropriate? No. Was it a mature thing to do? No. Did Rainami do it anyway? Yes. He wasn't angry at anyone in the clan; he'd normally be angry at something minor, such as cutting his leg or having a nightmare. Mainly he only used "Hell" and "Damn". His cry for calling a meeting when he was in this mood was: "Damn the world! Get the hell over here or face my wrath!"

"What was the first meeting about?" Mimi noticed that Lilac was building a small mountain made out of dirt a few feet away from them. She also began to notice that the sun had gone down. _"Geez, we_ have _been gone a long time."_

"A giant leaf, Legend needing grass, and for us to stay calm during the Gathering. I've already told him that sleeping with a giant leaf wasn't healthy." Lopsy shrugged. "Whatever. I'm just glad I don't have to go to any of those. I have anger issues and I'll kill someone." Lopsy noticed the look of horror on Mimi's face. "Yes, yes. I know it's wrong but…oh well." Suddenly, Lopsy turned around to see Storm inching his way out of the medicine cat den. "HEY! GET BACK IN THERE! I SEE YOU!" The cat hybrid hopped over to Storm angrily. "You will learn today when I say something that benefits you, you listen…"

Foster shook his head slowly. "To be honest, I don't want to go, either." And with that, the young warrior walked back to his den.

Mimi bit down on her lip before letting out a small mew. "Neither do I."


	6. Author NoteApology

**I AM SORRY! I know that I said I was going to update on weekends, but I really can't think of anything to write. I write slow and I might only write a sentence a day before I exit out of the word document. I'm not going on a break; it just might be a while before I update again.**


	7. And Party On

**YES! YES! I finally updated! It's been a million years! Random side note: I just started reading Harry Potter in August and I'm now on book five. My thoughts so far: ^-^**

 **Also, I was asked whether to have OC's or not. Maybe, but they'll be used for later. Then again, I'm not sure because I just randomly do things, so...I'll give more information on the furute about it. Have a good day!**

"I keep telling you that I don't know who or what that is." Storm and Riley were busy making a moat around the warrior den earlier the next morning. Had they talked to Rainami to make sure it was okay? No. Could they die? Maybe…

"Pikachu. My old owner was a young twoleg and he would have these cards with this yellow…animal…on it and his name was Pikachu. He shocked people, just like you." Riley explained. Storm glared at her for a few seconds before returning to his digging.

"Since this was your idea," Storm gestured to the moat with his tail. "Do you mind telling me how we're going to fill this?"

"With water."

"And how are we going to carry said water?" Storm was beginning to grow nervous. Normally, no one was up this early, but based on his luck, this would be the day that cats decide to roam around. Yes, he knew that someone were to eventually find out about the moat, but he really didn't want anyone to know that it was him involved with it. Silly.

Riley opened her mouth to say something, then thought against it. "Well…I know that I shouldn't keep comparing this life to the life when I was a kittypet, but…I was thinking about using a bucket…which can't happen since we…don't…have hands…" The bumblebee cat frowned as she pawed at the ground. Riley knew that Storm was glaring down at her…in anger. She began to back away with her head down.

"Where are you going?"

Riley remained silent until she was a few feet away, then she raised her head and ran towards the forest. The light gray tom didn't even bother to pursue her for multiple reasons.

One: he didn't even feel like making a big deal out of this. Two: it was too early for this. Three: he didn't feel like enduring the wrath of Willow, Riley's mate.

Riley would tell Willow things, without the intention of starting a problem or wanting Willow to take care of it, but the black and orange cat would always try to defend her.

The electric cat decided to do the responsible thing and run away before Rainami, or anyone else, could see what he and Riley did. Was this the mature thing to do? No. Was it the smart thing to do? Perhaps…

A few hours later, the majority of the clan had woken up, with the exception of Sandy. It puzzled some to find a half-dirt circle around the warrior den, but there wasn't much they could do about it except to watch their step anytime they got near it…

The only person who seemed to get pleasure out of this was Lilac, a purple cat/wolf hybrid.

If Lilac were a Twoleg, she would be called a hippie. The cats in Ziro would call her "spacy" due to her inability to hold a conversation without zoning out. It wasn't meant to be a rude or hurtful insult; it was more of a playful nickname.

Lilac loved anything to do with nature and being in the forest, and talking to the other creatures who lived there. Because she had befriended many of the small animals, Lilac refused to eat anything the patrols brought back; instead she survived on a diet of mainly berries and any sort of other fruit she could get her hands on. She knew that there was no way in the world to convince them to do the same.

"Oh, yes, this would do lovely." Lilac stood over the moat, her tail waving excitedly behind her. Muttering under her breath, she began to poke at it. "Yes. Yes, I could keep some of my raspberries on the far side and blueberries over here—"

"You will be keeping nothing there." Rainami padded next to the purple hybrid. "This moat will be used for Leaf's bed." He gestured towards his five-foot wide leaf with his head. "He keeps trying to snuggle with me in the middle of the night and I keep trying to tell him/her that I do not enjoy being touched at night."

"'him/her'?"

Rainami gave an exasperated sigh. "Sometimes Leaf has the ability to change sexes. What is so hard to understand about that, Lilac?" The fur on his neck stood up. "However you are more than welcome to use the moat behind the nursery. WHO THE HELL IS MAKING THESE MOATS?!" He exploded, causing Lilac to take a step back.. "I DON'T CARE, I JUST WANT SOME DAMN CLARIFICATION! I DON'T LIKE BEING LEFT OUT!" Immediately he cringed as Solarite yowled from a distance. "I am not putting anything in a swear hole!"

Twolegs have a swear jar where someone puts money in every time they say a bad word; Rainami has a swear hole: a deep hole where he places rocks inside every time he says something bad. Rainami felt that he had to right to say whatever he wanted to because A, he was the leader, B, he was his own person, and C, he was about 17 years old in people years, meaning that he had the mind of a 17 year old. This little age-abnormality happened to every single cat in Ziro. As usual, the other clans found this to be funny and made fun of them whenever they could. The ironic part of this was they were actually making fun of them for living longer.

"You get away from me, you monster!" Rainami yowled with fear as he ran away, Solarite following close behind.

"…GET BACK HERE, RAINAMI!"

Lilac shrugged a little before she made her way towards the nursery. "Maybe I should get a little leaf to keep me company. I'd name him…Flounder. Yes," Lilac slowly nodded. "Yes, I'd name him Flounder. He'd be ten-feet long." She briefly stopped her conversation when she noticed Taco, one of the queens, attempting to leave the camp. "Hey, get back here!" Lilac called in anger.

Taco looked around, ignoring Lilac, and began to pick up her pace.

"You are having kits, Taco! Darn it, you need to be resting!"

"But it's so boring in there! I can't stay in there another minute! All they do is talk and sit there!" Taco half-whined, slowing to a stop. She glanced down at her stomach, sighing.

"What about Mom? She seems like she'd having something fun to talk about." Lilac placed one of her paws on Taco's back.

"Kate's alright, but sometimes I don't understand a word she says." The tall she-cat shook her head as she stared at the ground. "I mean that I don't understand the things she talks about." She added quickly once she saw the look on Lilac's face.

Kate was the mother of Lilac and Max, another warrior. She also happened to be a wolf. Kate was born into a wolf pack, far away from any clans or any Twolegs, who lived in the snowy mountains. She was the omega, meaning she was treated horribly by all the other wolves, especially the alpha, Leo. He made sure to point out every single flaw that she had, such as her peculiar accent.

Soon she decided that she had enough and traveled from the north, down to the area of the clans.

"A few minutes ago she was talking about eating something called an antelope. I tried asking her what that was but she just growled at me." Taco sighed as Lilac led her back to the nursery. "How long until I have—" The cat stopped midsentence once she noticed Rainami poking her in the side with a stick. He waved his tail slowly as he held a look of curiosity on his face.

"Rainami, I am curious to know what you are doing." Taco frowned.

Rainami poked her once more, giggling, then stopped and cleared his throat. "Huh? Oh, yes. Sorry. Umm, clan meeting." The rainbow cat poked Taco once more before running towards Massive Oak.

"Good afternoon everyone!" Rainami shouted down cheerfully. "Now as you all know, we'll be going to Hell in two days—"

"Rainami!"

"We'll be going to the Gathering in two days," Rainami shot an annoyed look towards his sister who sat beside him, wearing a satisfied smirk. "Miss kill-joy over here is forbidding anyone to kill anyone, including me. So we have to act 'mature' and 'respectful'."

"What is that you're doing with your hands?" Solarite mewed.

"Air-quotes. I picked it up from a beaver in the forest." Rainami muttered quickly.

"What was a beaver doing in a—"

"Second on the agenda, as we all know, Taco is having kits in…"

"One month!" Lopsy shouted from the crowd.

"Thank you! So we will have a little celebration for her kits. It's like a birthday before they are born. Call it…Leaf Day…or…Leaf Day…or…Leaf Day—"

Solarite sat up on the tree branch, walked closer to Rainami, then hit him across the back of his head. "What is _wrong_ with you?! Did you get into those blackberries inside of Lopsy's den?!" She snarled.

"…Or Leaf Day…I think it's important to celebrate the life of any new kits, who are a wonderful addition to this clan and who will grow up to become warriors, passing their knowledge of Ziro clan down to their apprentices. I've always liked to think of us as one big family, looking out for one another, making sure everyone is happy and safe—" He stopped suddenly, looking around. "Well…maybe not a family because some of you have mated—we are a wonderful, tight-knit gathering of friends who love and protect each other. I am the mother and father—no, wait, that would only work if we were a family—Solarite, take over; I need sleep." Rainami gave a weary sigh, crawling down the tree with his tail hanging down beside him.

The deputy simply shook her head before continuing. "Um…okay. Anyway, there will be a party given to Taco later this afternoon. Rainami thought it would be a good idea for us to do this before the Gathering as a way to take our minds off of it…temporally." She shifted the weight on her paws.

And so the cats began to volunteer to do certain things, such as planning games and decorations and invitations. Yes, invitations were needed so that the rabbits and squirrels could know about the party (unofficially known as Leaf Day).

"And there is one final thing that should be discussed," Slowly, the black cat turned her head slightly to the left to where she was staring into Taco's eyes. "No more sneaking out of the nursery!"

The sky was turning gray, clouds shielding the cats from any sunlight, which earned a few meows of protest. Hopefully it wouldn't rain until the celebration was over.

The problem was that the celebration (now officially known as Leaf Day by Rainami) was going to be held at night. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but for some strange reason it would always rain at night. (Rainami would call these Rain Nights and he'd wake up the next morning, rolling around in puddles)

"A hole." Roosevelt said excitedly as she looked around at the other apprentices. "A large hole that we can jump into and make tunnels." Her tail wagging behind her.

Phoenix was the first to object to this. "You're an idiot." She flapped her wings once, annoyed

"Thank you, Phoenix. I really appreciate that." Roosevelt turned to Mimi. "Well?"

"Umm…well…what if someone fell in and got hurt?" The gray cat scratched her head nervously. Noticing the look on Roosevelt's face, she continued. "I mean, you don't want anyone to get hurt, do you?"

"No…not really."

"Why are you people obsessed with digging holes?!" Phoenix shouted. Her tail began to grow longer, sparks shooting from her tail tip. "For StarClan's sake, what is wrong with you people?!"

"Phoenix, leave," Her sister said firmly as she pointed away from her. "If you stay here any longer you're going to get upset and hurt us and I don't feel like seeing you get into trouble…unless you hurt me really badly, then…hmm. I don't know; just leave."

The winged cat had already begun to stalk away before Roosevelt could finish her sentence.

"Coward!" Roosevelt suddenly yelled. She then turned to Theodore, but before she could ask for his opinion, Theodore began backing away slowly as he stared at the ground. "Theodore…" She mewed.

The striped cat's head remained down until he reached a large bush, where only his dark brown eyes remained visible.

"Such a shy thing." The white she-cat muttered as she shook her head sadly. "I wonder why he's like that." Knowing that she would never understand the ways of her clan mate, Roosevelt made her way over to Lilac, who was currently stacking berries on top of each other.

"…now you stay up, you little…" The cat/wolf hybrid lay on her stomach with a few berries between her paws. Carefully, Lilac attempted to stack one on top of each other, but due to the "roundness" of the berries, the tower that she was trying to create would keep falling over. But Lilac was determined to create a small snowman out of berries.

"Um…Lilac?" Roosevelt stood in front of her mentor, trying to figure out what exactly she was doing.

"Yes…come on…stay up, my little babies…"

"Lilac."

"Come on, stay up,"

"Lilac?"

"Huh?" Lilac looked around, confused, as if just hearing Roosevelt's voice. Quickly she turned to her apprentice with a smile on her face. "Oh, hello! I'm sorry for not going over any battle tactics today. I know it's not an excuse, but I've been a little distracted and side-tracked by trying to have this celebration. Plus," The purple animal sighed sadly, her head lowered. "Then there's the Gathering. I'm not trying to scare you, or any of the other apprentices, but I keep having these…rather dark…thoughts about us and StarClan. What if there isn't a StarClan?"

Roosevelt jumped back in shock.

"Well it's an idea." Lilac muttered. "I mean, if there is, why would they have made us all so different from the other clans that we've been turned into outcasts? Is this some sort of sick game to them?" She sighed, looking away from the shocked Roosevelt. "Perhaps this isn't the proper conversation to have with someone as young as you. It's probably not even the right conversation to have with another cat who was originally born in this clan."

Originally Roosevelt's intention was to ask Lilac if she needed help. But after hearing this, she couldn't trust herself to speak without scolding Lilac. Roosevelt had often thought of herself as a fair, non-judgmental cat, but having someone question the very thing that she was told was special and important to every clan cat? Well that had crossed the line.

But Roosevelt didn't want to say something that she might regret, or try to scold her and yell at her like she's a little kit, which would be rather ridiculous.

"I suppose that everyone is entitled to their own opinions…" The young she-cat began slowly, daring her eyes around. Behind Lilac, she thought she spotted some movement from behind Massive Oak. Of course this wouldn't normally be anything unordinary, but this—whatever this was—looked like some sort of strange creature.

"No, don't be stupid." Roosevelt scolded herself as she looked away, frowning.

"Hey! Come on! Could you help me carry these large fruits back to the den?" Lilac was a few feet ahead of Roosevelt. "I think I heard Riley calling them…'apples'. They seem rather arrogant to me." Suddenly she placed her left paw on top of one of the green apples. "Yes…definitely an arrogant aura." Lilac began muttering quietly, too low for Roosevelt to catch any of it.

"Yeah," Roosevelt said absently. She continued looking at the tree, trying her hardest to see if she could notice anything strange. Slowly, Roosevelt tore her eyes away from the tree and began to follow Lilac.

There were more clouds over the sky at this point. Giant dark gray and black clouds. In the distance, rumbles of thunder could be heard. Yes, this was exactly the thing that the cats were afraid of…and this was exactly the same thing that Storm hated. (The cats found it to be amusing to joke about him and how he had something to do with the weather; Storm would normally run away out of either anger or annoyance, shocking someone in the process. Nothing out of the ordinary.)

Speaking of Storm, he was currently decorating the nursery with large flowers that were tied together with vines. Over the years, Storm has developed a natural ability for being good with his hands (paws?), doing things like making intricate objects and animals out of mounds of dirt and water and being able to tie things together, something that only Legend could also do.

Kate was sitting comfortable in a large nest, watching Storm break the stems off the flowers and making a hole in the middle of it, then sliding the vines through it. "Oh, it looks wonderful, Storm.." She barked sweetly, resting her head on the edge of her nest. "Maybe we need to report this to Rainami. See if he can put you in charge of some sort of special decoration organization." Kate twitched her ears slightly. "Hey, that rhymed."

"Is that a good thing?" Storm looked up briefly from the flowers.

"No. I don't like things that rhyme." Kate let out a whimper, then turned away from Storm. "It annoys me."

Storm decided that it was best to not say anything at this point and just simply focused back on his flowers. "…yes…" He mumbled to himself.

Nia had been laying on the floor, half sleeping. "I agree with Kate, Storm. Not about the rhyming thing; I have no problem with…that. The green flowers look nice."

"But, I don't have any green flowers. I only have blue and red and yellow."

Nia was now sitting up and staring directly at Storm. "I don't know what a 'yellow' is." She narrowed her eyes slightly before resuming her previous position once more. This time she covered her eyes with her black paws.

Storm still had a look of confusion on his face. Before he could say anything, Kate shook her head slowly as she flicked her tail towards the fox. "Don't worry about her. She can't see certain colors. I don't understand it myself, but…" Kate did a little shrug. "There are a lot of things that I don't understand. There are even more things that I'm not even going to try to understand. Except for why you cats enjoy scratching the Massive Oak. That confuses me greatly."

Rain. There was Rain. There was so much rain that the multiple holes that have been dug in camp were filled and overflowing. Large puddle of muds covered the camp. A few spots of grass would appear here or there, but was quickly covered up when cats had trodden over it with muddy paws. One would think that everyone would be used to walking around in these sorts of conditions, since they live in the forest, but in reality everyone would be in their dens, not busy walking around trying to write invitations to little rabbits and ducklings (Lilac and Roosevelt wrote little messages on leaves with brown rocks.).

The cats with thicker fur were annoyed (and by "annoyed" they were beyond livid) with this and began to develop a slightly jealous-fueled rage towards the ones with thinner fur. It was a subtle, quiet rage that went unnoticed and undetected by everyone.

Rainami and Solarite were seeking refuge under the massive branches of the Massive Oak, shaking themselves off every few seconds.

Willow was pulling a large brown hawk behind her with her tail, muttering under her breath. She stopped to look at Rainami. "Hi, Rainami—"

"DON'T YOU TALK DOWN TO ME, DAMN YOU!" Rainami screeched, taking his paw and flicking water everywhere.

Willow widened her eyes at her multi-colored leader. "Um…"

"Don't mind him," Solarite said kindly to Willow. She looked back at her brother, who was now looking at her innocently, snarling. "Your leader is just acting like a bit of an idiot because he's soaked with rain." Placing a paw on his back, Solarite's claws found their way into his skin. "And I think that it would be in his best interest to make an _apology_." The sister cuffed Rainami on the back of his head, hard.

"Yes, yes. Willow, I am sorry. I'm sorry I'm acting so immature because I'm angry that I've gained 135 pounds from the extra weight of the water on my thick fur. I'm also angry that you have no problem with this and the water is just rolling off of you like nothing and—ANGER IS FLOODING MY BODY ONCE MORE!"

Willow nodded her head slowly before carrying on to the pile of hawks. Once she was gone, Solarite wasted no time scolding Rainami.

"You have to set an example for everyone! You can't just go around screaming at people!"

Rainami meowed softly as Solarite's voice grew louder. "Yes, yes. I know. But she knows that I wasn't being mean or hateful towards her. I am a young cat and this is how I express my feelings. I have never been the one to hold back my feelings…but I will lie to you in a heartbeat. I will betray my friends just to get closer to my enemies."

The expression on Solarite's face was blank.

The tom darted his eyes around, frowning. "Not anyone here. I love them. I'd betray you, though."

Solarite continued staring.

"You bore me." He said quickly.

Solarite immediately closed her eyes and walked back to Rainami's den, shouting over any attempts from Rainami to talk. "You're banished from my thoughts and dreams tonight, rainbow." Solarite called over her shoulder.

"I told you, I'm not a rainbow!" Rainami shouted as he flinched from his sister's nickname for him. "I am a double-helix! And proud of it!" He stomped his feet angrily, splashing mud over his belly. Suddenly, he caught sight of Theodore, who was walking timidly around. "Theodore, do you know of when this celebration is going to start?"

Theodore whimpered quietly as he began to shake. "Um…I…I'm n-not really sure….Rainami." He swallowed hard, then looked around quickly. "Um…I'll…j-just be going now." With that, Theodore ran off.

Rainami watched as Theodore ran towards the medicine cat den, twitching his ears. "Well, I suppose that I should be the one to announce when we start this." He turned around and stood on his hind-legs for a moment before latching his claws into the tree trunk and started to climb. Once at the top, he over-looked the camp, watching the cats running around to make sure that Taco was going to have the best celebration possible. "Let all cats who have eyes come forward for a clan meeting!" Rainami shouted, then gave a startled yelp as he almost slipped on a slippery branch. "Hurry! Before I fall to my death!" He added. Immediately, he heard his sister making her way up the tree, and she was already trying to make him re-word something that he had said. "No." The leader said stubbornly.

Every cat was sitting around Massive Oak with a mixture of emotions on their faces. Some were trying to be patient and hid their annoyance, while others kept letting out sad mews of protest.

"I understand that you're all angry with the rain. When the rain stops, there will be an optional 'Yell At the Sky' meeting, where I will allow you all to insult the clouds and the rain until I either stop it or until Solarite breaks it up. But now to talk about the matter at hand. You have all been working hard for Taco's party, and I cannot express my gratitude for having such wonderful, selfless and hard-working cats in my clan. I know that Taco must be very glad to have all of you as her friends and family. You should be proud of yourselves, as I am proud of all of you. I thank you all. Now, let's start this very wet and very…I can't think of another word. Let's start this Leaf Day celebration!"

There weren't really any cats in Ziro who thought so highly of themselves that they were on the verge of arrogance, but it was understood that they each thought they did a nice job on the Leaf Day (unofficially officially known as Leaf NIGHT by Rainami). Lilac had created a forest made of fruit and cooked pieces of hawk meat that she had colored multiple colors using juice from berries; it sat on two conjoined stumps that were located between the Massive Oak. Glued to the stumps, trees, and all over the dens with sap and honey, were orange and red leaves, each torn to resemble either flames or a strange thing used by Twolegs called fireworks. Riley wasn't sure if anyone would know what she was trying to make. She was sure that they would just think it was a strange marking or a weird idea from her mind that had manifested itself into an actual thing. (Legend had did an activity with her, where he would point to an object and she would tell him what it made her think of).

The pond used for waking up cats had the message "HAPPY LEAF DAY, TACO" wrote with stones in it. Then there were a few other things in the pond that cats living in the forest shouldn't have, but they do…thanks to some cats who used to be loners. There were red and blue lights sitting at the bottom of the pond that would flash after a few minutes.

Riley, Mimi and Legend were the only cats in the clan who would sneak out to where to Twolegs live and collect anything that they found. Mimi would collect things like toys and food wrappers, Legend would get things like newspapers, books, and electronic gadgets that he could easily carry, and Riley would take it too far and actually sneak into houses to get sentimental objects, such as wedding rings and wallets with money in them. There is no doubt that there are hundreds of angry Twolegs in the area.

Rainami didn't seem to have a problem with this, but he did make sure that this little secret was hidden from the other clans when they would do sneak-attacks on them. They didn't need one more thing to call him out on, and if they did, they would never forget it.

Taco was walking around with a crown made of pink roses, purring loudly. "Oh, I love you all!" She breathed as she stared at a large pile of catnip. Foster and Max were rolling around, making snow angels (catnip angels?), both giggling madly. "Hey, am I allowed to eat some of this while I'm pregnant?" Taco looked around quickly as Lopsy hopped by. "Lopsy, what do you think.?"

Lopsy, who was busy twirling around with a headdress on, shook her head quickly.

"Darn." A defeated look came across Taco's face, then as she started to sit down, she spotted Legend hovering above the trees with a large box in his mouth. Phoenix had already saw the flying cat and continued walking towards him with her eyes planted on the sky.

Slowly, Legend lowered himself and was soon on the ground. "Well, that was stupid of me; I could have been shocked by lightning!" The tom yowled over the howling wind, narrowing his eyes. "Does anyone know what this is?!" He looked at Taco and Phoenix expectantly. When they both shook their heads, Legend continued. "This is something that Twolegs use to listen to something called 'music'. I've heard this 'music' and it's when someone is talking while someone in the background is beating on a tree or a rock. Sometimes there are other weird sounds added to this. Sounds that I cannot explain."

Twolegs would refer to what Legend had as a radio. Unfortunately since the cats have never seen anything like this before, everyone called it a Magic Box. Inside this Magic Box was a circular object with a hole through it, called a CD.

Theodore watched from a blueberry bush, looking around to make sure that no one could see he was hiding. He liked Taco, but he didn't like large gatherings of cats. It made him feel very intimidated and extremely uncomfortable, so one could imagine how a Gathering was for him (even though his reaction to a Gathering was the same as any other cat in Ziro). Theodore desperately wanted to get a closer look at what Legend had, but he was afraid that someone might ask him his opinion about it. "Maybe I can see what it is when no one's around." He thought, then allowed himself to smile a little as the idea ran through his head.

"Taco, I know this celebration is for you, but I don't want to offend you if I poke around with this thing for a moment." Legend looked at the she-cat for a second before batting the radio with his paw.. Taco dipped her head a little, letting Legend know that it was okay for him to continue on. "Alright, then."

His eyes flickered across a series of buttons with shapes on them. One of the buttons were green with a red circle on it. Another one was gray with two blue triangles pointed to the right with a vertical line in front of them. Then, in the middle of the two, was a gray button with a picture of a green triangle pointed towards the right with two vertical lines next to it. He didn't know why, but he felt himself compelled to touch that green triangle. Once he did, a few notes began to play from the speakers, followed by the voice of woman with a British accent.

"Oh. That…that sounds…nice." Theodore pointed his ears towards where the music was coming from, curling his tail around his back legs. Silently, he began to debate whether he should go outside, just to hear the music better. "What are these strange sounds?" He thought aloud. Slowly, he poked his head though the bushes, where he found the other apprentices sitting around the device.. "They look so happy." He thought as he watched them laughing as they poked the device. Rainami was behind them, attempting to catch a yellow butterfly with transparent wings. He then noticed how Taco and Kate were throwing leaves at each other, laughing as they jumped around in the small mountain of leaves—which were without a doubt soggy from the rain.

"Maybe…" Theodore cringed slightly as he tentatively placed a paw outside the bush. "…maybe I shouldn't be afraid of them. They're not the ones I should be afraid of. I…I can trust them." Theodore looked around from side to side, then made his way out of the bush. "They won't hurt you, they won't hurt you, they won't hurt you." He repeated to himself with his eyes closed tightly, quivering violently.

Legend had noticed Theodore coming out of his hiding place, but held his tongue. "Perhaps the therapy is working." Legend couldn't help but smile when Theodore came over. "Hello, Theod—"

"GAH!" The apprentice jumped at the sound of Legend's voice before running over to the pile of leaves.

When Phoenix caught sight of the look on Legend's face, she placed a paw on his shoulder. "Oh, don't worry about it. He's taking little steps right now."

With a nod, the winged creature glanced off in the direction of the shy cat. "Yes. Little steps." He repeated softly. A thought came to his mind, causing him to stare directly at Phoenix. "I trust you not to send the leaves up in flames." He said loudly.

There was no response.

"Phoenix?" When Legend turned around, the mischievous little apprentice was already making her way towards the leaves. "Aw."

Night time had officially fallen over Ziro. Remnants of torn (and severely burned) leaves were scattered from the entrance of the camp, all the way to apprentices' den. Massive Oak was now covered with carvings of utter nonsense, really. Cats who had been around catnip do wrote the strangest things, from rated G sayings (flowers are pretty) to rated R sayings (Rainami was behind 75% of these, which sent a lot of cats away blushing after one glance).

The grass was stained with a combination of blue and purple juice from the berries. This wasn't really a major problem…most thought it looked lovely…except that no one could remember how to stain more of the grass.

Rainami was inside of his den, watching the last warrior go inside of their den. He wore a faint smile on his face, waving his tail leisurely behind him. "No words could ever express the love I feel towards all of you." He said with a contented sigh. Grunting slightly, he adjusted himself to where he was now laying on his back, staring at the stone ceiling above.

"Three must join to become one. Do not ask questions. Do not do what has been done to you." A voice whispered softly in Rainami's ear.

His entire body froze. He refused to scream, to stir. To think of anything except for what he had just heard. "Finally." Rainami said seriously. He closed his eyes, giving a sigh of relief. "Finally."


	8. Twisted Gathering

**WHAT?! I'm updating again?! WOW!**

SnowClan Allegiances

Leader: Icestorm: An arrogant snobbish white tom with slicked down fur and blue eyes; enjoys pestering Ziro's faults and comparing them to his clan.

Deputy: Snow-wing: A beautiful mean-spirited pale gray she-cat with dark blue eyes.

Medicine Cat: Rightsong: Timid white she-cat with speckles of pale brown and gray on her face and back.

The night had come too soon for the clan of Ziro. Grimly they made their way out of the warm and forgiving camp and into cruel remarks, judgmental eyes, and a world of humiliation that would soon await them. In silence, Rainami led the way, trying to rid his mind from thoughts of evil and picturing Icestorm being buried alive…

"I wish we had farther to walk." Max muttered under his breath as he stepped over a tree branch. "We're getting there too quick; we need to slow down."

Storm glanced at him briefly, frowning. He wished he could argue with him or say some words of comfort. Nothing came to mind as he found himself agreeing with him.

"If anyone says anything about my Riley I'll rip their eyes out." Willow curled her tail protectively around a shaking Riley.

Rainami, who was walking beside Solarite, shrugged slightly. "Keep your thoughts inside of your head and make sure they don't turn into actions."

Lilac looked around her at the apprentices who all shared a look of dread on their faces.

This would be their first Gathering.

"They should be bounding around, mewing with delight right now." Lilac thought miserably, dragging her feet. "The other clan's apprentices are probably over-flowing with joy."

Sandy gave a sad smile and a nod at her sister, her heart beating rapidly. She opened her mouth to say something, but before any words could come out, Theodore nudged her.

"H-how long until we g-get there?"

"Now." Rainami said grimly. He stood at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the the other clans: FlameClan, RazeClan, and SnowClan. Groups of light colored cats, dark cats with flame markings, and scarred and nearly hairless cats conversed happily with each other. Elders had strayed off to the west side of the field, first-time warriors trying to act mature sat quietly towards the north side, rowdy apprentices played tag, and sitting on top of large flat rocks were Icestorm, Whispheart, and Dragonfoot.

"Let's get this over with." Solarite sighed as she made her way down the cliff, the others following closely behind with her head down, except for Willow, who already had her teeth barred and claws unsheathed.

At once, all conversations came to a stop as Ziro strolled onto the field, lit by fire. The sounds of whispers among apprentices and giggles among warriors didn't go unnoticed by the cats.

"Well…it looks like the walking rainbow has summoned up the courage to show his face around us normal cats." Whispheart sneered as Rainami passed by.

"No one is normal, Whispheart. Remember that." The multi-colored tom said over his shoulder. He quickly spotted his place on one of the rocks and began climbing. "Ziro…" He turned back to address his clan. "…ignore them. Don't do anything to them. They're all acting like a bunch of idiots anyway."

This would have been where Solarite would tell Rainami to use a better word choice, but she didn't. She knew he was right.

Rainami watched as his clan began to spread out over the field. He flattened his ears in anger as he began to think about how he couldn't do anything about how the other clans treated him. Well…technically he could, but since he was a leader, it wouldn't be appropriate to act in such a manner. "So," he thought bitterly as he lay on the rock. "let the internal struggle to contain myself begin."

Amongst the dark pelts, a single dot stood out. A single, arrogant little dot.

"Icestorm," Rainami growled, gripping the sides of the rock. "You pathetic little coward,"

"Hello, everyone. It is I, the honorable Icestorm from SnowClan, here for the Gathering." He announced arrogantly as he stopped in the middle of the clearing, his clan members proudly marching by him to find their places. Icestorm sat down as well, placing a paw on his chest. "A time when all desirable clans come together for a night of unity." At once he looked in the direction of where Rainami was sitting; they made eye-contact briefly before he continued once more, in a rather cold and mocking tone. "Well…they're not ALL desirable. There are bound to be a FEW mistakes. StarClan isn't perfect. Sometimes they tend to make disgusting…little…errors."

Rainami broke away from his stare and focused on the moon above. His body shook involuntarily as his face tightened. "Be a good boy, Rainami. Be a good boy." The leader let out a shuddering sigh, struggling to keep his breathing slow. Some more of those "Rated R" thoughts crept into his mind about Icestorm.

"He isn't entirely wrong, you know." A croaky voice belonging to a she-cat hissed.

"Dragonfoot. I hadn't even noticed you." Rainami responded dully.

"Good," Dragonfoot snapped. "The more distance we put between each other, the better. And I mean that both literally and metaphorically! Now keep away from me—Don't get any closer!" The black she-cat stalked away, muttering in disgust.

"Can we get this started, please?!" Rainami shouted, eyes closed from a combination of annoyance and frustration.

"Did I hear you right, Rainbow?" Icestorm called from below. "Are you getting a little tired of us and our presence? Because I could easily say the same about you!"

"I really don't care what you say about me, Icestorm. You can call me every name in the book and I still won't give a damn what you think about me." Rainami stood up with his tail high in the air, his entire body tensed. For this one brief moment, Rainami was ready to throw himself at Icestorm, forgetting everything that was told to him, forgetting his own morals and losing all willpower.

But no…

No. Rainami, wasn't going to let someone else make him act like a fool, embarrassing not only himself but his entire clan—including his sister. They'd be winning again, and would have another thing to poke fun of him for.

Icestorm returned the gaze before rolling his eyes and taking a look around, looking for members of his clan. "Fine. Let the Gathering begin. I've been waiting this long to introduce some new rankings pertaining to my wonderful clan."

And so, without haste, Icestorm from SnowClan, Whispheart from FlameClan, and Dragonfoot from RazeClan joined their spots on the rocks.

"Attention, everyone!" Whispheart called loudly. All conversations quickly came to a stop, prompting Whispheart to continue. "The Gathering shall begin. Would anyone like to begin?"

Before Rainami could get the chance to even open his mouth, Whispheart talked over him at once and began talking about his own clan. "Everything goes well in FlameClan. One of my queens, Woodclaw, has given birth to two kits—one female, one male—both on the way to becoming proud and strong warriors of FlameClan. We spotted a kittypet on our territory a few days ago, but…" Whispheart casually raised one of his paws and extended his claws. "…my skilled warriors took care of it."

Rainami frowned at this, fighting back a sad whimper.

"There is good news from my clan, too, Whispheart." It was now Icestorm's turn to talk. "I would like to introduce my new Medicine Cat, Rightsong."

Slowly, a tall and slender she-cat with short fur made her way through the crowd. The fur on the top of her head was longer than the rest, slightly ruffled. Speckles of pale brown and gray fur were on her face and her back. Her tail flicked back and forth as she stood there, all attention on Icestorm.

"Yes1" Icestorm shouted triumphantly, his yell echoing into the night. "Yes. This…THIS…is a medicine cat. Her connections to StarClan are truly, truly divine. I for one believe that she has been gifted with powers that no other clan as ever seen. Her never-ending and vast knowledge of berries, leaves, treatment of her fellow clan mates are the most impressive. Of course, only a clan as fine and well-maintained as mine could ever produce a cat like Rightsong."

"Oh, kill me now." Solarite muttered darkly.

"Any time, now." Rainami thought, impatiently.

"And there is even more great news from SnowClan." Icestorm continued.

"Great."

"I have appointed my newest deputy, Snow-Wing. She holds a special place in my heart, for she is my beloved sister."

"Oh my StarClan, there's more of them." Rainami gasped with shock.

"He has a sister?"

"How come we've never heard of her?"

"How old is she?"

More and more murmurs like these became louder and louder. As this went on, Icestorm just sat there (his chest was stuck out). Once some of the chatter had died down, slightly, Icestorm decided to speak once again.

"No doubt there is confusion about my sister, who has been previously hidden at this point. Our clan wishes to keep some things a secret, just as well as you all have your own little secrets…" Slowly, the white cat looked slyly at Rainami. "…so you will be only given this little piece of information: she is my sister. Yes, she is real…to whoever muttered that in the crowd over there…and on the discussion about her age, she is 48 moons old. Dragonfoot, would you like to say anything?"

The black cat cleared her throat. "Yes, Icestorm." Dragonfoot said sweetly. "Our clan has been having some problems relating to food—out supply of rats are slowly decreasing, but it is nothing that we cannot fix. We are a clan that prides ourselves on our ability to think 'outside the box' so to speak. Our warriors and apprentices are healthy. That is all."

"Now, Rainbow…" Whispheart spoke in a tone of voice, as if he were talking to a small child, who couldn't grasp the simple idea that he was talking about. "Would you like to say something about your…'clan'?"

"As a matter of fact, I would. First of all, I don't like that tone of voice you're taking with me, but because you're too feeble minded to understand that you're insults are only making you look like the idiot that you are, you will constantly continue drawing more attention to yourself, rather than me, the person of who you are trying to take down with petty remarks and elementary insults. Second, Icestorm, you're not the perfect clan that you've set yourselves up to be. You strolled into my clan, Ziro, for unknown reasons, just to provoke us—doing something that Whispheart here is trying so hard to do, but failing at it since you're taking it to the point of physical confrontation. I fought you once, I'll fight you again in a heartbeat. Thirdly, we have had no problems with our clan. Everyone loves each other with unconditional love and treat each other with the respect they deserve. One of our queens, Taco—yes, Whispheart, make fun of her name as you wish, just know that you're only drawing more attention to your annoying self with that "holier than thou" attitude of yours—is giving birth to kits very soon. We had a celebration thrown for her—something that none of you cold-hearted cats have never thought of doing even once for the members of your clan that you 'love' so much. We had a wonderful time, not worrying about anything, not making fun of any of our flaws or little quirks, because we are one unit who works together to fight such disgusting hate that comes from cats like you, only making us stronger until the day we die. You try to knock us down, laughing at our fur and how I run things. But the reality is that we are proud of who we are and we are not going to try to hide it anymore. Whispheart, that poor kittypet who crossed into your territory, I have so much sympathy for it, and I pray—I pray to the very StarClan of which you love—that they are all right. I feel compassion for cats, no matter their sex, their fur color, no matter what runs through their blood. Kittypet, loner, clan cat—it all doesn't matter. Those are all just labels. Labels that have defined cats since the dawn of these clans. What really matters is the life they choose to live. The things they choose to do, for not only themselves but for the cats around them. Yes, I have many loners in my clan, because I know deep within my hearts that they are just as capable as doing everything that a "clan-cat" can do. And I know that they know within their selves that they are just as capable as well. So, when you call me a rainbow—I'll smile. I will laugh. My fur is colorful—rainbows are beautiful. They are gifts from StarClan. Every single insult that you throw at us…every single attempt at taking us down…are nothing. Nothing but reflections of how poorly behaved yourselves are. We're done here."

Rainami jumped off the rocks and jostled cats from the other clans. "We're leaving." He mewed angrily.

Solarite asked no questions as she gathered the others, only having time to think of what her brother had just done.

"He just stood up to them…He just stood up for us…"

Once the last of Ziro had gone, the three leaders stood there…in silence.


	9. New Arrival

**Author Note: Look, I apologize…I know that I haven't updated this story since either October of November (see, even _I_ don't know). Am I promising that I will update more often…no…but I will try not to have giant gaps of months before updating. Also, the other stories that I'm working on are currently on a hiatus…and I picture a mountain when I say this word…so…don't expect anything from me accept for this, for now. Also, if anyone has any questions about this weird….thing that I am writing, please ask (either e-mail…or I guess that's PM…or do whatever). Also…I apologize if this chapter seems really long; it was 13 pages in Word Document…Have a damned Diabeetus day…(I'm obsessed with saying the word 'damned' and 'diabeetus'…so…there).**

I'm not sure if I'll ever understand my mind. For some strange reason, and I don't know why…I feel slightly guilty for going off on those idiots like that. Sure, they had it coming for a long time…scratch that…they've had that coming before they were even born…but I guess I'm a little surprised at myself for how I handled the matter. How I responded verbally instead of doing what I normally do: sit there and try to ignore them. But I guess it's time for a change. Then there's the matter of that little…omen I received two nights ago. Maybe this is one of those times when I just have to trust my instinct.

On a happier note, I can't wait until Taco has her kits! I wonder how they'll look…maybe they'll be rainbow…sometimes I feel odd. I know I need to get over my self-consciousness…damn you, Legend and you're wonderful words of confusing wisdom! I need to stop writing; I'm supposed to be doing border patrol this morning

-Rainami

Rainami had just put down the little pad of paper that Legend had given him just in time to notice a large bird sitting on top of the rock where he normally slept next to at night. "Hi there." Rainami waved slowly. "What are you doing here?"

The large featherless bird scowled at the leader, flapping its arms every few seconds.

"Well…I'm not really sure what to say about that…" Rainami mewed nervously. "It's not that I'm afraid of you or anything…it's just that…" He stopped mid-sentence when the bird let out an angry screech.

"GAH! DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"Rainami, what are you doing? Didn't you hear me calling you?" Solarite ran into the cave, looking around the cave. She saw the bird, then sighed deeply. "What did I tell you about stealing animals? It's not right; they have their own families—how many times do I have to explain this to you?"

Rainami, eyes still glued to the intimidating bird, nodded absentmindedly. "Sure…sure. What…what did you want, Solarite?"

"We…have a guest." Solarite said carefully. "It's not anyone you know, either, so don't get excited."

The rainbow cat quickly slipped away from the hateful eyes of the bird and walked towards his sister, purring loudly. "Is it a rabbit, by any chance?" Rainami's voice was brimming with excitement. "Ooh, I love those fluffy little guys!"

"No."

Rainami's face fell. "I hate you." He finished darkly, on his way back to the pile of moss where he slept, tail dragging on the floor behind him. Solarite ran over to stop him in a rather effective way: throwing a rock at his back.

"Come on!"

Rainami and Solarite were practically running towards the entrance of the camp. Due to the bodies of cats either sitting down or standing and pacing back and forth, it took a few moments before either one of them could get a good look at the thing that was causing such a disturbance.

"Alright," Rainami began, slowly raising his tail. He began to squeeze through any empty spaces between the cats. "You have five seconds to get as far away from this clan as possible. Unless you're from StarClan, then I'm curious as to why you're here…"

The creature made a soft squeaking noise, as if to say that it understood.

"Ah. So you understand the Cat's Language. How con-" Rainami's voice faltered once he finally laid eyes on the creature. It was if his brain had stopped working temporarily, struggling to take in what he had seen.

Picture a small human—a toddler—naked, but covered entirely with shaggy short white fur. There were two pointed ears that twitched slightly every few seconds. The creature looked around with curiosity, his ears now twitching very violently. The small pink nose on his face wiggled back and forth as the creature attempted to take in as many scents as possible.

At this point in time, Rainami's brain decided to work again after shutting down from trying to understand what he was watching. With his legs trembling, Rainami hesitantly walked closer to the creature. The rest of the clan cats just stared, a range of emotions on their face. Some cats, like Phoenix, seemed a little excited due to the presence of the creature. The other 95% of the clan were afraid, but too afraid to do anything but stand there in frozen terror.

"Uh…hi there." Rainami smiled weakly. The furry creature stared at the leader, now attempting to put his paws in his mouth. "If you are violent, I would greatly appreciate it if you would tell me ahead of time so that you…don't ambush me…" Rainami frowned at his own words. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed Solarite staring at him, most likely wanting to correct him.

The creature blinked his green eyes once more. Suddenly he pointed to his throat and shook his head slowly.

"Oh, you can't speak." Rainami waved his tail as the creature nodded in agreement. This slightly comforted him, knowing that the creature was unable to communicate with them. This made him seem less like a threat…that is, if this creature had a gender. Rainami turned around towards his clan, then cleared his throat. "Alright then. Let all cats who are afraid out of their bloody minds, come forward for a clan meeting." Rainami glanced around, noticing that the circle of cats had gathered closer around him. "You all need to close your eyes so I can scamper up Massive Oak ever so quietly and be all…all magic and stuff—CLAN MEETING!"

"So as you all know, there is a magical/possibly deadly/possibly friendly/possibly devil monster/cat/dog/rabbit/fluff ball/gingersnappit out there in our camp—" Rainami pointed from the tree branch at the creature, who was now standing upright like a twoleg with its arms by its sides, staring at the cats huddled around the tree. "—and as my duty as clan leader, I must…come up with a way to handle him…or her…in a reasonable and fair matter that will make everyone happy. Now…" The tom twitched his ears, sticking his head out further. "I personally want to shave him. Why? Well, why not? The fur is only a tool used by society that shapes our minds and stereotypically actions that we must take in order to uphold said actions. So…we'll be doing…good or…you know." He faltered, frowning as he glared down at his paws. "Suggestions?" He mumbled.

"I'm not sure if we should be discussing this in front of him." Cali nodded her head in the creature's direction. "We…" She stopped abruptly, a worried look on her face. "He could…see this is why we can't talk about it with him here. He can hear us!" She shouted at last.

Rainami seemed to be thinking about this as he lay on the branch. "Perhaps…also, how do we know if the creature is tom or a she-cat? Or even a cat at all? Lopsy, could you do a medical examination to determine the precise gender of the white one?"

The cat/rabbit hybrid hopped over to the creature, looking at it for a while before grunting in response. "It is a male." She said loudly.

"Hmm…" Rainami fell into deep thought. He shifted his position to where he was now laying stomach-down on the branch, his arms hanging over the sides as his legs swung back and forth. He caught his sister glaring at him with narrowed eyes. "Do not take my 'hmm' as a sign of favoritism for the male sex. I'm…I'm just…trying to figure something out." _Something I should have told you about._ He thought slowly.

"Three must join to become one…" Rainami's eyes clouded as he heard the whispering voice again, with a sudden note of urgency in its voice.

 _But…shouldn't I tell my clan about this? They have every right to know._

"Do not ask questions…"

Well…it just doesn't seem right. But if this really is something bigger, then it might be better if they didn't know every single detail…

"It's for the best, at least until I understand this better." The leader said finally with the shake of his head. "I've made my decision. If the creature has good intentions, we should let him stay."

At first the cats said nothing; they just stared at Rainami as if he were insane. Then all at once, every single cat began yelling out in protest, yowling over each other to be heard.

"No, Rainami, no!"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"We don't know anything about him!"

"Please, reconsider!"

"I'M GONNA SLASH YOUR THROAT OUT! GET OVER HERE!" This was from Solarite, who's claws were unsheathed. She leapt down from the tree, ignoring any pain from the fall, hissing in anger. At this point, the others were quiet, only looking at Solarite and her blushing brother. "GET DOWN HERE, _NOW1_ " She yowled, then stalked into the den.

"Great…" Rainami muttered, carefully climbing down from the tree. He fought the urge to cast another look at the creature as he sulked into the leader den.

"So…" Solarite paced back in forth in the cave, the fur on her back bristling. "You…decide to make this rash decision without even discussing this with me, let alone the rest of the clan. This important decision that effects everyone in the entire clan."

Rainami didn't know how to respond, so he didn't. He sat on a flat rock, a sheepish grin on his face.

Solarite caught sight of this, then nodded as she registered this. "What the HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Her scream echoed throughout the cave. "You fool!"

"Solarite, you don't understand. I have very good reasons as to why I'm doing this. Do NOT question my ways! I…I don't even know if I should tell you about my little message from the other night." Rainami said in an offended tone of voice. Slowly, he turned away from his sister to stare at the wall behind him.

"What are you talking about, rainbow?"

"I'll tell you...but I don't want you to let anyone else know about this. As my duty as a leader, I refuse to have my clan living in terror caused by something no one understands—including me." Frowning a little, Rainami muttered, "This is why I was elected leader."

Solarite made a face as if she smelled something rotten. "You weren't elected. You were automatically made leader—this is your clan! You invented it!"

"No…"

"What do you mean—look! Don't try to change the subject. Tell me about your message."

So Rainami went into great detail about this peculiar omen, not bothering to stop when Solarite asked him questions until he was finished.

"So what do you think it means?" Solarite asked finally, now slightly worried.

"I'm not sure. I haven't really thought of it since the night before the Gathering." Rainami answered honestly with a shrug. He padded closer towards the nest where he slept and pawed at it absentmindedly. "Obviously it's StarClan trying to tell us about something, or warn us about something…I told you about how urgent the voice sounded this time. Maybe three means three clans—" Immediately Rainami gave an involuntary laugh. "Yeah, right. Even with the possible chance of doom, those judgmental fools wouldn't dare help us."

"I thought you weren't supposed to think this way anymore."

"No, these aren't petty thoughts. These are real facts and…stuff…"

Solarite looked nodded. "Well…I know I can't tell you what to do as a deputy to a leader…but as a sister to a brother, I hope you'll make the right decision." She stood there for a few moments before leaving the den.

Rainami, still pawing at his nest, listened to Solarite's retreating pawsteps. "I hope so, too." He sighed heavily. "I really do."

The creature had remained in the same spot, watching everyone around him. He would twitch his ears anytime a cat looked at him for too long. Of course they weren't trying to be rude or mean. It was natural for them to be curious. The creature didn't seem to mind the attention.

Legend watched as everyone walked by, going on with their day as they looked at the creature. "Interesting." He muttered to himself. Without hesitation, Legend made his way over to the creature.

"Hello, there." The deep voiced tom said politely. The creature dipped his head as a greeting. "I was wondering, if you are willing and if it isn't a bother, if you could perhaps tell me where you've come from or if you have another way of communicating."

To his slight surprise, the creature nodded affirmatively. He looked around for a bit, then grabbed the stick next to him and began creating markings on the sand. First he drew an eyeball, then an "X", a mouth, another eyeball two parallel lines, then a raindrop.

Even with his knowledge in Twoleg language, it didn't help much as he tried to decipher this strange message. After what seemed like 10 minutes, he raised his tail with triumph. "Eye, no, mouth…talk…eye…'I don't talk…my…"

The creature pawed at his own throat slowly.

"Ah…I can't talk; my throat…sad…perhaps hurts. Oh, Great StarClan! We've been letting you sit here for this long, injured?! Lopsy!"

The hybrid hopped quickly over, breaking away from Storm. "Yes."

"This cat is hurt!" Legend said, almost cutting over Lopsy. "He can't talk because of it!"

"How did you know this if he…can't talk…?" Lopsy still continued to look over the creature for a moment.

"He told me through pictures." Legend announced in a rather dignified manner, sitting up a little straighter.

"Hmm…you should come with me anyway. IN PRIVATE!" Lopsy added angrily as Rainami stared through a bush 2 feet away from the three. She hissed as his blue eyes remained fixed on the scene.

"…I'm going, I'm going…" Slowly, his eyes disappeared (along with the rest of his body), where he soon sulked away walking in a hunched-over fashion, casting back glances every few feet.

"Great leader. Insane cat, but great leader." The rabbit/cat hybrid added with the shake of her head.

The inside of Lopsy's hut was a very simple design. Imagine small hut, looking as if it were built by Twolegs, with large mounds of yellow straw and grass forming a roof. Two square holes were cut out, each on either side of a large hollowed out door. Large white and gray stones represented the typical flowers that would normally be seen under windows.

"Just sit over here. I'm just going to get a few things ready…maybe I can see what exactly is wrong with you…" Lopsy added to herself. "Now, did you eat anything recently?"

The white creature shook his head slowly as he looked around at the multiple shelves around the hut. The shelves were actually a combination of items that Legend had found and hardened dirt that fit inside of the crevices of the hut walls. Upon those shelves were berries, a plethora of catnip (for some odd reason), and an assortment of leaves and flowers. "Great." Lopsy muttered as he looked around. She stomped her foot in anger.

"What's wrong?"

"Legend, I'm going to need you to go out and get some honey. Don't worry," Lopsy added once she saw the terrified look on his face. "The bees won't be out there this time of day. For some reason, they're attracted to Rainami's scent during the morning. And I have a theory that it's because the sunlight shining down on his fur creates a glowing effect with the combination of the heat slightly emitting fumes from his fur…I need sleep." Lopsy brushed the side of her face with her paws.

"Alright…pray to StarClan that the bees don't kill me."

"I think you might be overreacting a little bit." Lopsy gestured for the creature to lay down inside of something resembling a large bird nest. "Oh, I wish I knew your name."

The creature pointed to himself, then shook his head.

"Sadly I still don't understand." Lopsy frowned as she began to examine his eyes. "Where did you come from?"

Silence.

"Let's…let's hope that Legend comes back here quickly with the honey." Lopsy gave a sad meow, awkwardly looking around the den, feeling warm under her fur. She could feel the creature looking at her. She opened her mouth to say something, then reprimanded herself for forgetting the creature couldn't talk. "Huh…LEGEND GET BACK HERE!"

As if on cue, a ruffle-furred Legend returned, looking annoyed beyond all measure, with a hollowed out stone. "I almost died." He said coldly, giving the stone to Lopsy.

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating?"

"I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

"I'll get to you in a minute." The tone of Lopsy's voice was distracted, as she was busy giving the honey to the creature. "Just…drink it and this will soothe your throat."

"Eat."

"What?"

"Eat. You eat honey, Lopsy." Legend added, flapping his wings once.

"I disagree—"

"Honey is a thick substance. Any thick substance without the intention to be a liquid, is not a liquid." The golden-furred tom's voice became louder with a trace of anger.

"Do not argue with me!"

"I am not arguing with you; I am simply telling you that you are wrong."

"And by definition that is arguing with someone, is it not?!"

"No. Arguing is when two or more people share and try to defend their valid points. This is not arguing since there is only one person with a valid point—"

"I do not like your tone!" Slowly Lopsy's eyes grew darker as the back of her legs began to shake.

"My tone has been appropriate throughout this whole conversation—"

"NO!"

"Lopsy, I am taken back by your anger—"

"I SAID NO!"

As the two "argued", the creature had taken the honey and grew tired of watching them. So he walked out of the den and back into the clearing, looking around at the odd cats. He watched as Foster stared coldly at Mimi, his claws retracting every few seconds as his tail lashed behind him, and at Mimi, as she carefully slid a rock into a hole she seemed to be digging—refusing to break eye-contact with Foster.

"You don't need all these rocks. Really, you don't." Mimi's voice was gentle, almost as if she was trying to convince him to believe the very opposite of how he felt.

"Don't you tell me what I need." Foster spat. "I-I tell you what to do!"

"What about my parents?" Mimi asked innocently.

Silence.

"You-" Foster closed his mouth quickly as he placed a paw on his mouth. "You need to-" He closed his mouth once more. "I…I-you…see, I can…we-I-BAHH!" Before Mimi could react, Foster had streaked by, grabbing his precious rock and heading straight for the entrance of camp.

Mimi watched him, clearly unfazed by his actions. With the shake of her head, she went off in search of Legend, hoping to persuade him to increase the number of therapy sessions with her mentor.

"Interesting…" The creature took note of this before going on his way. He didn't get far before Lopsy hopped into him, chittering in anger.

"You shouldn't have ran off like that!" Lopsy snarled, attempting to make herself bigger by fluffing out her fur. However this failed due to Lopsy still managing to be shorter than the creature. "I take full responsibility for all patients. I will not tolerate one of them running off when they're still in an unhealthy state! And until I've examined you again, I still deem you unfit to do anything else but to lay in there and rest!"

The creature nodded a little, keeping his head down.

"See?! You're proving my point! You still can't talk yet!"

"I can…but I still don't like to." A very high-pitched scratchy voice came from the creature, almost like a whisper. He placed both his hands on top of each other, looking down at the medicine cat. "And I would like to be called Socks for now on…that is, if you don't mind." He bowed his head.

Lopsy watched him with a combination of amazement and curiosity. Finally she cocked her head in agreement. "Alright." She said, still taken back by Socks talking. "Do you feel well enough to see Rainami? I'm sure he would like to ask some questions."

The white creature stared at Lopsy for a moment with clouded eyes and turned his ears towards the sky. He remained in this position until what seemed like a jolt shot through his body. Immediately his eyes unclouded. "Yes." He said finally.

"I will only explain this to you one more time," A cold voice coming from Rainami's mouth only seemed to bring further amusement to the one he was speaking to. "If we are playing a game of Three Stone Monty…you must use three stones. Not two…not four…but three." The multicolored cat continued on with the same tone of voice.

"Rainami, I have some complaints about this game." Mimi kicked one of the gray stones in one of the nine circles surrounding her.

"Yes?"

"I don't like this game." She said finally.

Phoenix's tail was on the verge of sending sparks flying in all directions as she gave an affirmative grunt. "I don't like it, either."

"But why not?!" The leader dropped to the ground, then let out a plaintive wail. "This is, like, the best game ever!" Rainami whined, dragging his body towards the pile of stones. He immediately stopped whining for a moment, grabbed the extra stone, then flung it across the camp and resumed to whine.

"RAINAMI!"

"Uh-oh. Uh, the lesson is over. Good day." Rainami stood up and began half-running, half-sliding on the sand beneath his paws in a desperate attempt to flee from his enraged sister.

Mimi then watched as Solarite shot from behind the warrior den using three legs to run while using the other to hold the top of her head. "I'm not even sure if I want to know how she does that." She said quietly.

Phoenix didn't see much of this, since she had busied herself with attempting to stack the smooth rocks on top of each other. "Come on." White smoke began to surround her tail as the rocks toppled over. Phoenix tried once more, growling after they refused to stay in a stack. Now her tail had transformed into black smoke., immediately followed by yellow flames. Phoenix wasn't the one to give up easily (except when it came to a game of Three Stone Monty), so after a third attempt, the red one had somehow managed to place the stones on top of each other, holding both her paws on each side of them.

"Yes!"

Mimi padded next to Phoenix, alarmed by what Solarite was going to do to her brother, waving her tail back and forth absentmindedly.

"NO!" Phoenix's wings grew twice their normal size as a white and yellow flame engulfed her tail. "GET OVER HERE!" She snarled, shaking with rage at Mimi, who was staring at Phoenix with a look of bewilderment.

"W-What?"

"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THIS TOOK FOR ME TO GET THESE STACKED RIGHT?!" A screeching cry erupted from Phoenix's throat.

"I…I didn't know that…" Mimi quickly began to notice the flaming cat inching towards her, the only thing stopping her from running is knowing that Phoenix will catch up to her and cause more psychological harm later. The only physical harm that Phoenix could do was shooting sparks on cats, but she did that without having to be angry on a daily basis.

"ANSWER ME!" Phoenix took a few steps closer, oblivious to the winged shadow looming over her. She gasped as Legend picked her up by her neck.

"Control, Phoenix! We must learn to control that anger of yours by a combination of meditation and laughter therapy. Come now," he mumbled through her fur. "We must find a stick to poke you with. If you poke someone in the side enough times, they will laugh." Standing as tall as one could with a squirming cat in their mouth, Legend then began to hover and was soon flying towards his den.

Relief couldn't even begin to describe the amount of gratitude that washed over her…this feeling then transformed into fear when she noticed Socks standing next than two feet away from her.

"I've never seen a cat with wings before." Socks began pacing around Mimi, staring at the ground. "Is he magic by any chance? No," Socks scolded himself. "Don't be silly. A real cat can't be magic." A series of quiet, angry mutters came from his mouth. "Yes cats can have wings….you've seen that, Socks...cats can fly…so you would think that they are magic…but magic can't be real but there's a flying cat and cat made of fire…maybe some magic—NO! Not even a little magic!"

Mimi darted her eyes from side to side.

"I thought you couldn't talk…"

Socks nodded quickly. "Oh, yes…well, no…I mean, no I couldn't talk; I was a bit of a fool and ate some….thing…that was too hot and it burned my throat. But the nice rabbit-cat gave me honey. I've forgotten her name already." His eyes clouded as he screwed his face up with a look of concentration.

"Would you like to see Rainami? He's the leader."

"Oh, I've seen him, but I ran back here. He was curled into a ball, yowling, as a black she-cat stood over him hitting him."

"Oh."

The two sat in silence (Socks didn't really sit, he mainly walked back and forth, thinking). A small rabbit hopped next to Mimi, wearing some sort of small hat made of leaves. She looked behind her at the long and skinny vines that hung from two curving trees, creating makeshift doorway.

"Yes." Rainami said loudly.

"Maybe when I get the chance to talk to him, I'll be able to ask why there is so much sand around here. So much sand." Socks grabbed a handful of sand and began to examine it.

"Yes!"

"I wonder who put this here."

"YES!"

"I should retract my claws; I'm going to get sand—"

"YES! YES! YES! WHAT PART OF YES DON'T YOU ALL UNDERSTAND! GET OVER HERE, NOW!" Rainami shouted. He waited a few seconds before adding, "I OWN YOU!"

"So, a number of things I need to talk to you all about." Rainami sat on his usual place on the Massive Oak, Solarite glaring at him, refusing to do anything else. "First of all, if anyone sees a tiny rabbit wearing a hat made of leaves, which I'm going to call the Leaf Hat Hat, please tell me, because he thinks that he's better than me now because I made him that hat!" Snarling, Rainami kicked the trunk next to him. "Leaf Hat Wearer! If you hear me, I want you to know that I will find you and I will give you a spanking!"

The cats in the clearing simply glanced at one another, then turned their attention back to their leader.

"Secondly, as you all know, we've had a visitor today. I do not know his name because, well I haven't seen him…I may be the leader of this clan but I am not in any way responsible for any of you under any circumstance."

The cats did nothing.

"I don't know why, but I have a feeling that I may be wrong on that…somehow. Anyway, the point is that I've agreed to let him in this clan—someone remind me to come back to this—and I will ask him a few questions to get some information about him. Yes…" Slowly, Rainami turned to Solarite, staring into her eyes. "I will be the one who asks him the questions because SOME OF US think that the ONLY WAY we can get to a person is by USING VIOLENCE AND FORCE!"

"I don't care if you're the leader; you're by brother first and I will fight you in front of everyone!" Solarite jerked towards him.

"Then I will throw you out of the clan in front of everyone!" He retorted.

"No you won't."

"Yeah, you're right." Rainami, still frowning, stared at the cats below him. "Lopsy, I believe that you were the one last seen with him. Do you know where he is?"

"I do not, Rainami. He ran away when my back was turned." Lopsy forced herself to hold back a growl…which proved to be easy since it was hard for her to growl. "Oh, and he goes by 'Socks' now."

"What?"

"That's what he said he wanted to be called from now on."

Rainami sat in silence for a moment before letting out an excited yelp, sending down a few leaves in the process. "White One! I demand that you come forward!"

The gathering of cats turned around, waiting for for any signs of movement.

"He's in the bush; I can see his ears sticking up out of the…bushy material." Rainami gestured lamely, then slowly began to make his way down the tree in order to formally greet Socks.

Either from fear of what Rainami might do next, or purely because he wanted to meet the leader, Socks slowly walked towards Rainami, maneuvering between the various cats.

"Welcome…Socks…to the clan of Ziro. As you may or may not already know, my name is Rainami and I am the leader of this clan." The multi-colored tom dipped his head briefly, the resumed.

"There are three other…clans…besides us…but I highly recommend that you, if you desire, to stay in this one. There is SnowClan, FlameClan, and RazeClan." Rainami waited for Socks to ask questions, but he remained silent. Rainami then continued. "They are, uh…" He felt Solarite looking at him, even from several feet above. "They are not the nicest of cats." He mewed finally.

"I've realized that I've allowed you to stay here without really asking you if you wanted to. Actually, I haven't really been able to ask you anything about yourself. Well, there's no time like the present. Would you be offended in anyway if I were to slap you with Leaf Hat Hat?"

Socks dipped his head, twitching his ears. "Well I'm not entirely sure what that is, but if that happens to be something…magic…then I don't mind."

"Oh, there's a little bit of Leaf Hat Hat magic inside of all of us." Rainami chuckled warmly, before hissing at the movement above him. "Solarite, STAY IN YOUR PLACE!"

"When this is over, I'm going to have a nice little talk with you." Solarite replied in an almost inaudible whisper.

"Oh." Rainami's pupils shrunk three times their normal size. With a shiver racing down his spine, the leader robotically backed away with his mouth slightly open. "Where have did you come from?" He rasped, pupils small.

"From…" Socks' eyes clouded once more, his previously normal/intrigued expression morphing into one of disgust and regret. Trying his best to make his voice sound normal, the white creature coughed slightly. "I…I'm not entirely comfortable answering that question at this moment…"

"Alright…" Rainami said distractedly. "That's fine." His thoughts were elsewhere, most likely on what his sister is planning. "My fellow clan members, I ask of you to please accept Socks into Ziro. I trust that you will all treat him with the respect that he deserves, love him as if he lived here amongst all of you…and keep violence to a minimum."

Taco shot him a confused expression.

"And, uh…let's formally welcome Socks into his new home." With another dip of his head, Rainami began to limp, looking over his shoulder and above him, while the others purred in greeting to Socks.

The moon's face shone down on the cats of Ziro. One by one, they slowly began to fall asleep…except for one.

Socks lay flat on his back in the warrior den, staring at the makeshift ceiling above him, his paws placed on his stomach. "It's not like I didn't want to do this." He said aloud, softly. "They pushed me to do it." The white creature sighed, turning on his side. "Three must join to become one…do not ask questions…do not do what has been done to you…" Slowly, sleep took over, sending Socks into a dreamless sleep.


	10. I Refuse to Hold You Down

**I...am a failure. Look, I'm not doing this intentionally with me promising to update more often. Sometimes when I'm writing, I can think of things to write and have ideas...then I'll get to a point where I can't think of anything and it ends up being a while before I update. This is really sad, especially considering that this is the main story I'm working on right now (Everything else is on Hiatus until...whenever, but I haven't forgotten about them). Also, if this chapter seems darker than normal, I was writing some parts when I was...sad or...whatever (because I don't write all of this at once).**

Three days had passed since the arrival of Socks and everyone had accepted him into Ziro as if he were one of their own. Of course there would be the occasional question, such as if Socks can morph into another animal (asked mostly by the apprentices), or if he knew any other clan cats (aske mostly by warriors) or if he had the ability to alter memories (asked only by Rainami). Oddly enough, the one question, mostly the most desired question, as to where he came from and exactly is he, wasn't asked. Why? Because it wasn't allowed to be asked.

Rainami decided that Socks would tell the others where he came from when he was ready, and that it wasn't right for him to be forced. Even though he was the one to come up with this rule, Rainami found it very hard to remember this, so whenever he asked Socks something, he was forced to poke himself in the arm with one of his claws to steer his mind away from asking.

"You seem to be forgetting who is in charge here." Rainami's eyes were narrowed blue slits, his messy fur bristling. It took every single ounce of control to keep his claws retracted. Currently he was in the nursery, fully aware of Nia laying behind him. When he hissed again, Nia intervened.

"Rainami, what are you doing?" Now she was standing, a slight frown on her face. She jumped slightly when Rainami whirled around with his eyes closed and his mouth open in a wide smile. ( ) "Um…Rainami…"

"Isn't it obvious?" His voice questioned, high pitched. "I'm trying to communicate with the unborn kits of Taco."

"And you're angry because…?"

Rainami's facial expression returned to normal. He looked straight ahead of him, then looked down at Taco…more specifically at her growing stomach. "Oh, no, I'm not angry…I'm just trying something out. Lilac told me that talking to the large stomach of pregnant mothers can…make it were…I talk to them and they…understand me—Nia, I apologize; I'm very tired and I don't understand anything that's happening around me. Please…sit there…" The leader trailed off with a stutter, sighed deeply as he closed his eyes and threw his head back. Finally he shook himself and calmly walked out of the nursery…

…where he was greeted by a large gray squirrel, who sported large bushy eyebrows.

At once, Rainami became paralyzed, being able to only move his eyes and ears. Once the first initial wave of shock was over, he opened his mouth to speak.. "Where are they?"

The squirrel stared at the cat before quickly averting his eyes before closing them. A pained look spread across his aged face before he summoned the courage to let out a small chitter.

"Oh, great StarClan." Rainami let out a choked moan. He quickly thanked the squirrel before running towards the entrance of the camp, trying hard to contain the mixture of anxiety and anger inside him.

They couldn't leave well enough alone. They just couldn't just stay to themselves and mind their business. No. They had to bring whatever problems they had into Ziro.

FlameClan.

While their little raids and pranks had decreased slightly, the actually intensity of them became worse. Two years ago, FlameClan made sure to show their faces almost every other week, somehow sneaking into the clan undetected, where they soon did everything to ripping out the fur of warriors in their sleep (of course the warriors would wake up after the first patch of fur was ripped away) to destroying everything in the fresh-kill pile (either by eating it or just….destroying it). The most recent prank was running into the clan with blood over their bodies (blood from mice) and saying that StarClan had sent badgers to attack their clan and were coming over to attack Ziro.

Rainami, of course, didn't want anyone in his clan to be hurt and was worried about the safety of FlameClan as well. Everyone who was capable left the camp in search of the badgers…only to be ambushed by FlameClan warriors from bushes and treetops.

Of course, this sort of treatment was only for Ziro and Ziro only. No other clan in the eyes of FlameClan deserved such treatment. In addition to this, no other clan would stand for such behavior…and FlameClan knew this…which is precisely why their need to taunt Ziro was fueled. They knew that Ziro wouldn't harm them; they would simply just sit there and take it.

It was more than obvious that the members of FlameClan took Ziro's generosity and unwillingness to directly confront them as a weakness.

"We need more warriors…that's it…" Rainami rambled as he wove though fallen branches, leading deeper into the forest. "How…how the hell do they keep getting so close to us without us knowing it until the very last minute?" He breathed, now stopping to look around at his rather dark surroundings. The entire atmosphere seemed to change because of the situation. The sky was now gray rather than the previous slightly calming pink and blue. All signs of life had silenced, with the exception of a cry from a hawk.

"Where are you?!" The leader panted, looking around once more. "You…you have the nerve to come into Ziro...at least have the courage to show your horrible faces! You call us cowards but YOU are the true cowards! A…Attacking us…when we didn't do anything wrong!"

Rainami stood there, waiting for an answer as his heart rate quickened. When he was about to let out another retort, a blinding flash of yellow light knocked him over, unable to move his legs. He screamed at his paralysis, trying with all his might to move, but failed. The oddest part in all this was that it didn't hurt, but of course Rainami didn't register this due to the obvious situation that he was facing.

"STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW, YOU DEMON!" A voice cried, followed by a loud scream.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!"

"THESE CATS WORSHIP THE PLACE OF NO STARS! STOP IT!"

"Are those voices coming from camp?" Rainami closed his eyes, wiggling over the ground. He let out a small whine before opening his eyes once more. "Oh, StarClan, why have you forsaken me…"

"…RETREAT! HURRY UP!" It was the unmistakable voice of Whispheart, with an uncharacteristic note of panic and fear. Rainami was currently in a position where he was almost completely covered by a large leaf, so a little part of him was thankful for that in case Whispheart tried to do something heinous. He shouldn't be having these thoughts; he is a leader. Aren't leaders supposed to be ready for anything? Rainami let out a sigh as the voices of cats grew closer.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" The FlameClan deputy, Dragonfire, cried, his voice leaving him. Shortly after he made a strange whimpering cry before falling over.

"Great StarClan, those freaks are smarter than I thought! They've found some super-cat…or some otherworldly abomination straight from the Place of No Stars!" Rainami heard Whispheart moving around in the nearby pile of leaves. They were silent for a moment before Whispheart spoke again.

"I'm not letting any of my cats near these demonic little vermin ever again. I don't care what anyone says; I'm even willing to go against the will of StarClan to keep them from being exposed to this…this madness! Now let's get out of here before that thing attacks again!" He spoke briskly as the they began to run towards their territory.

After making sure Whispheart and Dragonfire had left, Rainami attempted to move once more, and to his great surprise and relief, he was able to walk again. "What are they talking about? I don't have any dangerous or demonic cats in the clan. I mean, Roosevelt does has horns but she's wouldn't cause the kind of damage they were going on about."

Rainami made his way back to camp rather slowly, out of fear that the mild tingling sensation in his legs would worsen. A tiny part in his mind was shouting at him to hurry up and stop being an idiot. The more he thought about how anyone could have caused Whispheart of all cats to react the way he did, the guiltier he became. The images of anyone getting hurt, or potentially killed because he wasn't around to defend his clan began to make his heart race and stomach ache. What if this cat did the same thing that happened to Rainami to one of this apprentices?

 _You coward! What did you think you were doing, going off in the middle of the forest?!_

"I was trying to stop the FlameClan from attacking!"

 _You keep telling yourself that! Such lies! You were afraid of them!_

"I'm not!"

 _The way your voice quivered, the way your body shook, the way your fur stood up on the back of your neck down to your tail tip—disgusting! What kind of a leader are you?!_

"I'm a good leader!"

 _Being a good leader takes more than just being nice to your clan! You actually have to know how to defend them! That means you can't be afraid to fight, no matter how little you might know about the situation! No matter how bad it may be! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! SOMEONE COULD HAVE—_

"DIED!" Rainami dropped to the ground, fighting back the urge to completely lose control of himself, failing miserably. As he lay there a crumpled mess with tears obscuring his vision, a strange feeling that he was being watched began to fall over him. Perhaps it was the beginnings of an emotional struggle, or maybe there was someone who was actually watching his breakdown, whether it be an actual living being or a strange spiritual manifestation from StarClan. Either way, Rainami later gathered up enough strength to stand and slowly return to his clan as a feeling of total disgust and embarrassment filled his body.

Rainami has returned to camp at a respectable time, where he was quickly greeted with by his sister standing at the entrance.. _"Oh, I should have seen this coming."_ The leader narrowed his eyes and flattened his ears as he anticipated a severe scolding from Solarite. However, to his surprise, he was greeted with stuttering whispers.

"R-R-Rainami…you…y-you have…h-have to…get t-t-that….g-get him out of here." Solarite paused at the hitch in her breathing, then continued. "W-Where w…w-w-were you?" Her entire body shook violently as she looked behind her quickly. "Y-Y-You didn't see the thing or…the cats…" At once Solarite slowly lowered herself to the ground as she let out a fearful moan, her paws covering her eyes.

Rainami quickly forgot about his troubles as he came closer to his sister. "Hey, calm down. Solarite? Solarite!" Frowning, he began to prod her on the back, to which the black cat gave no response. "SOLARITE! CALM DOWN! JUST TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG!" He snapped as he stood over her shaking body. Rainami wasn't an idiot; he knew that Solarite was having some sort of panic attack, but being angry distracted him from having another breakdown that would surely be even worse than the last.

"She's supposed to be the strong one." Rainami thought coldly. "I mean…I'm supposed to be the strong one…I'm the leader…" With an annoyed huff, Rainami continued on into camp…

…where he was greeted with a floating Socks who emitted electric blue light from his entire body. His arms where raised in a V shape and his legs were spread apart as his tail pointed upwards. His head was tilted back and his mouth was opened wide.

Rainami stood there as a warm, burning sensation spread throughout his body. His stomach had felt like it was floating along with Socks as a dull ache set on his brain. Finally, Rainami nodded as shy laughter trickled out of his mouth. Raising his head to speak, the almost comforting burning sensation morphed into a torturous mind-numbing pain that filled every vein in his body, spreading to every organ and completely destroying every brain cell that hadn't already turned to mush from the first glance at this spectacle.

The leader dropped to the ground instantly as a wail of agony escaped from his mouth and into the air. He writhed violently as he emptied out his stomach contents over any part of his body that was in range, as well as over the glowing forest floor.

 _Oh, no._

The pain slowly dimmed, with the occasional sharp lurch of his stomach.

 _No, no, no._

Rainami's body lay still as the last wave of pain washed over him, the light leaving out of his eyes…

"You've lasted this long. I must say I'm surprised." A deep voice murmured. "I suppose having a clan to lead gave you some maturity. Well…perhaps a little."

Rainami slowly opened his eyes, only to close them once he was a blinding white figure standing in front of him. He remained in this state until he let out a heavy sigh. "I've died, haven't I?"

The blinding figure said nothing for the longest. "Yes."

"WHY?!"

"DO NOT YELL AT YOUR FATHER!" The blinding figure snarled as his eyes darkened. Immediately the blinding figure changed into the form of a large, muscular tom with dark blue eyes and long snow white fur. A series of light and dark gray stripes ran across the bottom of his front and back legs. "Listen to me. We don't have much time here; you're about to go back to your body. You will not lay on claw on the creature down there…Socks." The large cat gave a cry of surprise as a large eagle flew past him. "GO AWAY!" He shouted, then turned back to Rainami. "He just needs some practice with his magic; it's new to him."

"Wait, what magic—"

"Just listen. You need to change your methods of training, Rainami. And quickly! Before someone gets seriously injured or worse."

"What's wrong with my methods of training?!" Rainami stood up, glaring at his father.

"I wanted this to be a nice meeting—"

"Well how nice of a meeting are you planning to have in StarClan with your dying son?! This isn't some sort of pleasant every day occurrence where we can both laugh—"

"You will never learn to stay in your place when it is required! I am far more knowledgeable about things than you will ever be, especially things relating to a certain omen you've been getting petty hints about! You've always been stubborn and that's apparently never going to change. Forget it! It's obvious that you don't need my help." The father stalked away from Rainami before letting out a cold laugh. "I'll be seeing you again shortly."

"You didn't even want to help me, did you?!" Rainami shouted. He stopped once he saw he was lying in Lopsy's den He glanced over to see the hybrid with her back turned to him, apparently sorting herbs. She moved slowly, occasionally stopping to let out a sigh.

The sun had begun to set, casting long shadows across Rainami's body. Slowly, Rainami stood up (cautiously; there seemed to be a permanent fear instilled within his mind that he'd collapse) and immediately noticed that there were no signs of life outside.

"You're up, I see." Lopsy's voice caught Rainami off guard. She sunk back into silence.

"Yes…I…I have—"

"Do…Do you understand how hard it is for me to find my leader, my friend, dead with a face contorted in AGONY?!" Lopsy threw whatever object she was holding in her hands across the floor, then charged at Rainami, pinning him against the wall with her teeth barred.

"Lopsy—"

"AND DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS FOR EVERYONE IN HIS CLAN TO SEE THEIR LEADER DEAD?! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE TRAUMA THAT EVERYONE HAS WENT THROUGH TODAY?! OVER HALF OF EVERYONE HERE HAS WENT MUTE FROM THAT THING SCARING THE LIVING HELL OUT OF US! WE WERE ALREADY SCARED WHEN FLAMECLAN CAME THROUGH HERE! AND TO MAKE IT WORSE, WE COME OUT OF OUR HIDING PLACES WHEN WE SEE THIS EVIL CREATURE SHOOTING LIGHT AT ANOTHER CAT JUST LIKE US TO SEE YOU DEAD! WE'VE BEEN THROUGH HELL TODAY AND YOU MAKE IT WORSE BY DYING!" Her throat became raw as she shoved the wide-eyed Rainami and turned her back to him once more. She studied her hands before turning around again.

"Poor Theodore…he won't speak. He's gone completely mute. His pupils have shrunken to the size of SPECKS! I've never seen someone cry so much but make no sound at all. I thought, after treating him, that he's going to practically have to spend the rest of his days with Legend…but then I remembered…" Lopsy let out a whimpering laugh as she wiped her eyes with the back of her paw. "I remembered that LEGEND HAS ALSO GONE MUTE AND REFUSES TO GO NEAR ANYONE! HE'S GOING TO BE PLAUGED BY NIGHTMARES FOR STARCLAN KNOWS HOW LONG!"

A sudden rage entered Rainami, powerful enough to snap him out of his fear-induced trance. "I DIED! DO YOU THINK I HAD ANY CONTROL OVER THAT?! DID YOU TELL EVERYONE THAT I DIDN'T HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER THAT?!"

"NO, I DIDN'T GET THE CHANCE SINCE I HAD TO CONVINCE THEM TO NOT TAKE THEIR LIVES!"

"W-What?"

The medicine cat curled into a ball as sobs racked her body. "We don't know—" She let out a high-pitched squeal before attempting to continue. "—h…how many….lives you lost…we didn't know; you could be dead—" Lopsy's words became garbled speech as she lay there, screaming.

Rainami stood, feeling utterly disgusted with himself. "I'm a coward. These cats still love me to the point that they were going to…just because they thought I was dead. What kind of a leader am I?"

Everyone went to bed early, slowly falling into a dreamless sleep. Rainami spent the rest of his night considering the things his father said. Oh, how very hard it would be to not sink his claws into Socks' demonic body…but he would make an effort to change how he handles training.

No…

He wasn't going to "make an effort". He WAS going to change. Leaders don't just "make an effort".

The next morning was completely gray; the sky remained a single shade of light gray with no sight of clouds, yet the sun remained hidden. These are the types of days where everyone just likes to sit inside their dens, normally playing with each other. That would have been exactly the case today, if it weren't for Rainami "gently" forcing everyone out for a clan meeting.

As he stood on his branch of Massive Oak, Rainami could see the effects of yesterday's events on everyone as they swayed back and forth, unable to hold themselves up or keep themselves from shivering.

"I would like for everyone to know a few things. First, we are not going to let FlameClan get away with what they did yesterday. No, I do not know what they managed to get away with since I was away from camp, but all that matters is that they've crossed into our territory far too many times than I can count and I will not stand for it anymore. Secondly, we will discuss the…obvious. Yes, I've lost a life. I know that was very traumatic for everyone and I'm sorry that I'm responsible for something that could make you feel that way. I'm…I'm sorry that I've caused you so much emotional and physical pain that could have easily been avoided if I had made better choices. Choices that effect everyone in this clan and even those in other clans." Rainami paused to look at Socks, who was standing in the back of the crowd.

 _"_ _So much evil has been caused by you."_ The leader narrowed his eyes slightly as the cats around him became no more than blurred shapes, his focus completely on this creature. "I wonder if you even know what you've done."

"Socks," Rainami began after realizing that the others were waiting for him to continue. "It seems that you are the cause…or at least one of the causes…for all of this emotional pain and distress. I've made the decision to welcome you into our clan, but due to the recent events, I have decided to—"

"—kick me out; I understand that." Socks interrupted, looking down with a determined face. "Please excuse me for how I am about to say this, but…please tell me how any of this is my fault? Yes, I understand that 96% of the clan is suffering from shock, but having uncontrollable bursts of energy when trying to defend the ones who've accepted me into their lives with open arms isn't a reason to exile me."

"'Trying to defend—' what are you…"

 _Oh, Great StarClan, I'm an idiot._

"He wasn't trying to kill anyone; he was trying to stop FlameClan from hurting us…" Rainami fell into silence, the unmistakable feeling of embarrassment resurfacing again once more, causing the skin underneath his fur to glow red. "I can't even figure out when someone's trying to help me…" He murmured to himself.

 _You idiot! You were about to get rid of your most powerful weapon! StarClan KNOWS you're not going to fight anyone to keep this clan safe!_

"I know." Rainami whimpered quietly, his own thoughts mocking him. He cringed slightly as he thought of a living being as no more than a weapon.

 _Ah! You understand this…yet you have no understanding whatsoever about how to be a good leader!_

"I know." The tom waved his tail.

 _Smart boy! Too bad you've come to this realization too late, when you're clans already falling to shambles! They're all going to emotionally scarred for life!_

"You know what? I'm tired of this." Rainami shook himself before letting out a cry. "Socks, I was wrong. I am an idiot who obviously thought that you had some sort of plan to kill us!"

Socks twitched his ears, then let out a small squeak, not indicating whether or not he was shocked or furious to hear this.

"Furthermore, we're all going to begin some different training techniques based on your skills and abilities! We'll begin soon!" Not waiting on anyone to say anything (if possible), Rainami jumped down from his branch, only pausing to hiss at something he thought was a bird. He smiled as he raced across the brittle neon green grass, with only one thing in his mind at this point. Once he reached Legend's den, he sat down in front of it, bouncing up and down.

"How did you know I would be here so quickly?" Legend flapped his wings as he stared into Rainami's eyes.

"Because you know that I need your for this to work…and you'll do anything for this clan to be normal again."

Legend nodded once before leading Rainami inside. A smirk slowly appeared on his face as he shook his head. "I'll prove you wrong, father. And myself."


End file.
